Cordant Health Solutions Opens an Addiction Treatment Pharmacy in Oregon
PORTLAND, Ore., July 22, 2021 (Newswire.com) - Cordant Health Solutions®, a leader in providing innovative tools for behavioral health programs, opened a pharmacy specializing in addiction treatment medication in Portland as part of its nationwide managed medication-assisted treatment (MAT) pharmacy program.
Cordant's pharmacy program focuses on supporting patients who are in treatment for opioid use disorder (OUD) and prescribed oral or injectable medications that have been federally approved to treat OUD. Through Cordant's program, buprenorphine is delivered to patients during clinic visits. This helps remove many of the barriers to medication access addiction patients face, such as transportation issues, medicine availability or feelings of shame or stigma at pharmacies. In addition, Cordant delivers Vivitrol® to the clinic for administration during scheduled visits for patients receiving injectable therapies.
Despite research showing the value of medication-assisted treatment, patient access to medications continues to be a struggle. A 2020 study in Drug and Alcohol Dependence found that nearly one in three pharmacies restricted access to treatment medications, meaning that they would only fill prescriptions for a limited number of patients in a given time period, and one in five pharmacies refused to dispense buprenorphine at all. As a result, patients and clinicians must often scramble to find a pharmacy.
"As a healthcare community, we must do better and offer every available service to those seeking help for substance use disorder," said Daniel Mandoli, president of Cordant's pharmacy services. "With the sharp increase in opioid-related overdoses over the past year, it is a tragedy that patients with addiction face stigma and barriers to access buprenorphine, a safe and effective medication that has proven to reduce the risk of overdose and improve adherence to treatment programs."
According to the Oregon Health Authority, an average of five Oregonians die every week from an opioid overdose. Deaths involving opioids such as heroin and fentanyl increased nearly 70% in April and May 2020 compared with February and March.
Working together with addiction treatment providers nationwide, Cordant's program is dedicated to ensuring patients receive their medication in a stigma-free environment. With the addition of the Portland location, Cordant's program now serves 11 states and nearly 12,000 patients using either the in-clinic or home delivery options.
Cordant also dispenses Sublocade in other markets and will soon have it in Oregon. To learn more, visit CordantSolutions.com.
About Cordant Health Solutions®
Cordant Health Solutions® (CordantSolutions.com) provides innovative tools for monitoring behavioral health, chronic pain and criminal justice cases. Cordant's unique pharmacy and drug testing programs provide accurate, actionable results to protect prescribers, hold patients accountable and optimize quality of life.
A leader in quality standards, Cordant provides solutions for payers, clinicians and organizations involved with substance use disorder, pain management and criminal justice agencies. Cordant is one of the only healthcare companies that offers monitoring and risk assessment tools through its innovative drug testing options and full-service, high-touch pharmacies, which specialize in the management and dispensing of addiction treatment medications. Cordant's testing protocols and digital case-management tools help clients become more efficient and effective in using drug testing programs to monitor patient adherence, reduce risk and improve patient outcomes.
MEDIA CONTACT
Kim Kudasik
KKudasik@cordanths.com
Source: Cordant Health Solutions
