Retention With Medication for Opioid Use Disorder: The Role of the Primary Care Relationship

Primary care providers (PCPs) prescribe medication for opioid use disorder (MOUD), but patients may receive MOUD from a provider who only prescribes MOUD, and who does not provide routine medical care that would be expected from a PCP. The importance of receiving MOUD from one's own PCP versus another provider on patient MOUD retention is not known.

All patients receiving MOUD from December 2016 through November 2019 within a rural, Federally Qualified Health Center were included. Patient sociodemographic, PCP-MOUD concordance, and retention time in MOUD were extracted from the electronic health record. Travel-time from patients' home to the clinic where MOUD was provided was calculated. The risk of premature discontinuation was estimated with Kaplan-Meier curves and with hazard ratios (HR) with 95% confidence intervals (CI). All analyses were performed using R version 3.4.4.

Among (n = 353) patients receiving MOUD from 2016 to 2019, n = 77 (21.8%) patients receivedMOUD from their PCP (PCP-MOUD concordance). PCP-MOUD concordance was associated with reduced risk of premature discontinuation (HR = 0.41, 95% CI = 0.18-0.95), however, after multivariable adjustment, PCP-MOUD concordance was not significant (HR = 0.45, 95% CI = 0.19-1.05).

In this rural Federally Qualified Health Center, MOUD provision by a patient's own PCP, as compared to a separate provider, did not reach statistical significance for an association with improved retention in treatment. These findings are likely due to a small sample size, and support expanding buprenorphine access as part of comprehensive primary care to combat the opioid crisis, especially in rural areas.