For more than a decade, Ali Mesiwala, MD, has served as the director of neurological surgery for the Southern California Center for Neuroscience and Spine and chief of neurological surgery at St. Bernardine Medical Center. Active in the professional community, Ali Mesiwala, MD, belongs to such organizations as the American Medical Association (AMA).
In partnership with the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), the AMA, an organization dedicated to enhancing health care delivery and public health, announced that it created a new payment model that addresses the treatment of people with opioid use disorder. Called Patient-Centered Opioid Addiction Treatment (P-COAT), this new model makes it easier for patients with opioid use disorder to live meaningful, productive lives by helping them successfully manage their condition.
The AMA and ASAM decided to create this payment model in response to the increasing number of people dying from opioid poisonings annually. Despite plenty of research showing that psychosocial supports are effective for treating opioid use disorder, most current payment systems do not properly support individuals with this condition, and many physicians do not communicate well with their patients and other specialists to ensure opioid use disorder is properly treated. This issue is what the AMA and ASAM sought to address when creating P-COAT.
Rather than separating payments for opioid use disorder treatments, P-COAT will combine payment for all services patients receive that are related to their opioid addiction care. In doing so, the model increases access to medications to treat opioid use disorder and better coordinates psychological, medical, and social support services.
In partnership with the American Society of Addiction Medicine (ASAM), the AMA, an organization dedicated to enhancing health care delivery and public health, announced that it created a new payment model that addresses the treatment of people with opioid use disorder. Called Patient-Centered Opioid Addiction Treatment (P-COAT), this new model makes it easier for patients with opioid use disorder to live meaningful, productive lives by helping them successfully manage their condition.
The AMA and ASAM decided to create this payment model in response to the increasing number of people dying from opioid poisonings annually. Despite plenty of research showing that psychosocial supports are effective for treating opioid use disorder, most current payment systems do not properly support individuals with this condition, and many physicians do not communicate well with their patients and other specialists to ensure opioid use disorder is properly treated. This issue is what the AMA and ASAM sought to address when creating P-COAT.
Rather than separating payments for opioid use disorder treatments, P-COAT will combine payment for all services patients receive that are related to their opioid addiction care. In doing so, the model increases access to medications to treat opioid use disorder and better coordinates psychological, medical, and social support services.
