With the onset of the COVID-19 public health crisis, new data from a survey launched by the American Academy of Addiction Psychiatry (AAAP) in collaboration with a wide cross-section of medical, academic and healthcare organizations found that more than 80 percent of surveyed X-waivered physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners who treat patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) want virtual visits and other telehealth options to continue after the COVID-19 public health emergency. This research comes at a time when the pandemic has created considerable new challenges for patients and providers, including how the nation’s drug overdose epidemic has evolved from one largely driven by prescription opioids to one now increasingly fueled by illicitly manufactured fentanyl and fentanyl analogs, methamphetamine, cocaine and heroin.
