Virtual opioid use dysfunction supplier Bicycle Well being introduced Thursday that it’s partnering with Albertsons, a grocery store and pharmacy chain, to increase entry to buprenorphine remedy for opioid use dysfunction.
Boston-based Bicycle Well being is a digital well being firm that works with payers and serves these combating dependancy by providing remedy for dependancy remedy, remedy and peer assist. A few of Bicycle Well being’s payer clients embrace UnitedHealthcare, Aetna and Cigna. Boise, Idaho-based Albertsons is the second-largest grocery store chain within the U.S., with a footprint throughout 34 states.
By the brand new partnership, Bicycle Well being suppliers can prescribe buprenorphine prolonged launch injections (in any other case referred to as Sublocade) to opioid use dysfunction sufferers. The remedy can then be administered by a pharmacist at an Albertsons pharmacy in a non-public room. Buprenorphine is a partial opioid agonist that’s used to deal with these with opioid use dysfunction. Bicycle Well being then offers follow-up care and behavioral well being assist via its digital program.
About 2.5 million adults within the U.S. battled opioid use dysfunction in 2021, however just one in 5 obtained drugs to deal with the situation. By working with Bicycle Well being, Albertsons hopes to vary this statistic.
“Providing restoration injectables at our pharmacies fill a necessity in our communities the place sufferers are searching for various remedy choices to handle opioid use dysfunction in a stigma-free atmosphere,” mentioned Erin Shaal, vp of prescription procurement, specialty and affected person care at Albertsons Firms, in an announcement.
Sublocade is injected once-a-month, whereas Suboxone (one other type of buprenorphine) is taken orally every day. Ankit Gupta, CEO of Bicycle Well being, contended {that a} month-to-month injection is much less of a burden to sufferers than an oral each day remedy.
“It’s a lot simpler to be adherent to the remedy protocol,” Gupta mentioned in an interview. “It’s additionally a lot simpler from a confidentiality standpoint. Some sufferers don’t wish to have Suboxone at residence or mendacity round.”
He added that Sublocade may be higher for sufferers who’re at greater threat of diversion. Remedy diversion refers back to the unlawful use or distribution of prescribed drugs.
The partnership’s providers can be found at greater than 700 Albertsons pharmacies throughout 17 states. They’re Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Delaware, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Montana, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Texas and Washington. Bicycle Well being and Albertsons plan to increase to extra states sooner or later.
Their partnership has no monetary part, Gupta mentioned. As a substitute, each corporations will invoice insurers independently for his or her providers.
Bicycle Well being first discovered this type of assist was wanted after it launched a partnership with the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) to serve these leaving jail. That’s a inhabitants that particularly struggles with accessing assist for substance-use dysfunction. By that partnership, Bicycle Well being offers digital opioid use dysfunction providers to sufferers dwelling within the Bureau’s residential reentry facilities.
“Contained in the jail, they’re rising the administration of Sublocade and the utilization of Sublocade,” Gupta mentioned. “So when a affected person is on Sublocade they usually go away, they should proceed that remedy. It was actually laborious for us and the BOP to search out native suppliers throughout the states that we’re offering this take care of.”
Different digital opioid use dysfunction corporations embrace Ophelia, Workit Well being and Confidant Well being, which additionally prescribe buprenorphine.
Picture: mikdam, Getty Pictures
