Leveraging pharmacy partnerships and Grant funding to improve access to medications for opioid use disorder

Background: Increased availability and access to FDA-approved medications for opioid use disorder (MOUD) can improve efforts to address the ongoing opioid public health crisis. Pharmacist collaboration is essential yet often inconsistent in MOUD access. This unpredictability creates a treatment bottleneck, especially in rural areas. Objective: To investigate the reasons for independent pharmacies' reluctance to collaborate with the Mississippi Horizons Project, a program designed to improve patient access to MOUD. Methods: A Horizons team member contacted pharmacies using a script to inquire about accepting payment for a patient's MOUD prescription. Pharmacist responses about collaboration (i.e., collaborated or denied collaboration) after initial contact and follow-up were summarized. A single coder inductively derived categories within which responses about collaboration were totaled. Results: After initial contact and follow-up, only slightly more than half of pharmacies contacted (53.5 %) collaborated with the Horizons project to accept payment for and dispense MOUD. Categories for non-collaboration included regulatory misperceptions, unfamiliarity with patients and providers, and payment and logistical barriers. Successful efforts for collaboration after initial contact included utilizing existing relationships with pharmacies and providing additional information about the Horizons project. Conclusion: Integrating educational interventions with structural and policy measures, while fostering collaborative partnerships with pharmacies and other key stakeholders, can help increase familiarity, reduce stigma, address operational challenges, and enhance cooperation to increase pharmacy collaboration and MOUD access to patients in rural areas and nationwide.