Nearly 1 in 3 U.S. clinics providing methadone treatment for people with opioid use disorder are owned by private equity firms, a recent research letter in JAMA Psychiatry says. Private-equity penetration in methadone clinics, also known as opioid-treatment programs, is higher than in other health care areas. Private-equity ownership ranges between 2 to 11 percent, according to researchers from the Virginia Commonwealth University, Harvard Medical School, Massachusetts General Hospital and other institutions. Why it matters: Lawmakers are concerned that private equity buying hospitals and other health care businesses could harm patients as a result of such companies’ desire to cut costs for short-term profit. Some lawmakers and health experts have also argued that consolidation driven by private equity leads to higher health care costs and worse access to care. Lawmakers have similar concerns about opioid-treatment programs, the only programs authorized to prescribe and dispense methadone, an opioid used to treat people who use illicit fentanyl and other illegal opioids. Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and his allies in Congress have asked companies running opioid-treatment programs whether private-equity investment was driving their opposition to legislation Markey sponsored. That bill, which the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee advanced last year, aims to expand methadone access by allowing addiction doctors who don’t work in opioid-treatment programs to prescribe the drug and pharmacies to dispense it. Companies running methadone clinics rejected Markey’s accusation. They say his bill could increase the risk of methadone being diverted and more people abusing it. One opioid-treatment program told Markey and his allies in a letter that private-equity investment allowed it to increase services for patients by hiring more clinical support staff and upgrading operations and infrastructure. Markey doubled down on his request for more information, sending letters last week to five opioid-treatment programs demanding more specific answers on private-equity ownership and patient outcomes. Additionally, he and Sen. Mark Braun (R-Ind.), who is leaving Congress in January to become Indiana’s next governor, wrote to multiple private-equity companies last week asking how their investment in opioid-treatment programs affects the access and availability of methadone. What’s next: The senators gave the methadone clinics and private equity companies a Jan. 10 deadline to respond to their queries. It remains unclear whether Markey’s bill to expand methadone access has a path to becoming law in the year ahead.
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