COVID-19 necessitated rapid changes in methadone take-home policies in opioid treatment programs (OTPs); these changes markedly contrast with existing, long-standing federal mandates on OTP rules about take-home methadone. OTP providers describe how these changes have affected clinical decision-making, equity in patient care, and workflow. We also discuss implications for medical ethics and patient autonomy. We provide suggestions for future research that will examine the impact of COVID-19 on OTP treatment and its patients, as well as the effect of making methadone take-home polices patient centered, all of which may foreshadow larger changes in the ways OTPs deliver their services.
Re-thinking patient stability for methadone in opioid treatment programs during a global pandemic: Provider perspectives