Integrating telemedicine for medication treatment for opioid use disorder in rural primary care: Beyond the COVID pandemic [commentary].

Even before the 2019 novel coronavirus disease (COVID) crisis, telemedicine (TM) enabled by digital health technologies was considered a key solution to the health care access problem in rural communities. However, use of TM to treat opioid use disorder (OUD) has been limited even during the recent opioid crisis in America, despite the high rates of opioid overdose and death in many rural areas. This limited use of TM-based medication treatment for OUD (MOUD) has been mostly attributed to restrictions imposed by federal and state regulations for TM (e.g., licensing, reimbursement) and patient challenges (e.g., accessing and using the technology). The current “collision of the COVID and addiction epidemics” forces a drastically increased demand for remote care models for MOUD. In this commentary piece from the Principal Investigators of the CTN Greater Southern California Node, the authors reflect on what virtual high-quality care entails and how access to these services can be expanded.