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In late February, the Federal Bureau of Prisons,Bicycle Health, and Wellpath announced a collaboration to address the severe SUD crisis in prison inmates and the overdose deaths associated with incarceration. In the two weeks after leaving incarceration, former inmates are 40 times more likely to suffer an opioid-related death from overdose than the general public. Offering SUD treatment during incarceration through telehealth has officially moved prison telehealth into the fast lane.
Until now, medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) treatment regimens have been underutilized in criminal justice settings, according to a 2019 Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) report. Telehealth has been used to prescribe and monitor the use of medications like buprenorphine successfully. This FDA-approved medication limits painful opioid withdrawal symptoms helps prevent overdose, and supports long-term recovery. Wellpath and Bicycle Health will work with formerly incarcerated patients in the FBOP’s Residential Reentry Centers (RRC) in 42 states. The primary goal of this collaboration is to improve the availability and clinically appropriate utilization of MOUD among this underserved patient population.
The roles and rationales for the three parties who have recently joined forces to assist opioid-addicted inmates are detailed below:
- The Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Federal Bureau of Prisons (FBOP) is responsible for the care and custody of over 151,000 federal inmates, of which nearly half are incarcerated for federal drug use. It was established in 1930 to provide more progressive and humane care for federal inmates, to professionalize the prison service, and to ensure consistent and centralized administration of federal prisons.
- San Francisco-based Bicycle Health has provided integrated medical and behavioral health treatment…
