The first wave of the opioid epidemic began 26 years ago, and it continues to be a major issue for the health care system today.

However, there is one treatment model that shows promise—but it could see progress stunted by future Medicaid cuts.

In 2022, 81,806 opioid-involved overdose deaths occurred in the United States, more than any year prior. However, in 2024, overdose deaths relating to synthetic opioids dropped by almost 37 percent from 2023.

A form of treatment that has proved and could continue to prove beneficial for treating opioid use disorder (OUD) is the collaborative care model (CoCM). In the SUMMIT randomized clinical trial , published in 2017, 32.8 percent of patients in a CoCM displayed abstinence from opioids or alcohol, as compared to 22.3 percent in standard c

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