Read the full article at The Tennessean.
In 2020, there were only 1,007 providers in Tennessee capable of prescribing buprenorphine, a safe and effective medication for the treatment of opioid use disorder (OUD). However, in that same year it was estimated that at least 70,000 Tennesseans had OUD. While this means the patient-provider ratio is 70:1, about half of those 1,007 providers were limited to a patient cap of 30, and 26 counties lacked such a provider altogether.