Fig. 1.

Distribution of Distances to Nearest MAT Prescriber and Mean Distance Traveled to MAT Prescribers, in Miles (2014–2015). MAT prescriber includes the service location of a provider who prescribed buprenorphine, injectable naltrexone, or oral naltrexone to any Medicaid enrollee in 2015. Distance was taken from the center of the patient’s zip code to the service location address of the provider, and measured as a driving distance. Mean distance traveled to MAT prescriber was calculated across all of 2014 and 2015 for adult enrollees who were eligible for the NQF Continuity of Pharmacotherapy measure. To be included, enrollees had to (1) be diagnosed with OUD; (2) have ≥ 1 claim for buprenorphine, injectable naltrexone, or oral naltrexone; (3) be continuously enrolled for at least 6 months; (4) have no missing prescriber IDs for MAT in the pharmacy file; and (5) have valid service location addresses for each MAT prescriber. Interquartile, median, and 90th percentile presented. 90th percentile presented instead of maximum for presentation purposes. Maximum values were the following: minimum distance to nearest available MAT prescriber = 44.1 miles; distance to nearest available MAT prescriber who prescribed to ≥ 10 enrollees = 65.8 miles; mean distance traveled to actual MAT prescribers = 395.9 miles.