Nearly a third of telemedicine patients with opioid use disorder had to go without buprenorphine because they had trouble filling their prescription at a pharmacy, according to a new study.

The study, published in the medical journal JAMA Network Open this month, surveyed 600 telemedicine patients across five states: Florida, Michigan, New Jersey, Ohio and Texas. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved buprenorphine for treatment of opioid use disorder. The drug reduces a patient’s cravings for opioids and reduces the likelihood of a fatal overdose.

The most common reason that patients had trouble was that buprenorphine was unavailable at the pharmacy, followed by coverage-related issues and the pharmacy’s hesitancy in filling a telemedicine prescription.

Previous research ha

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