Who prescribes buprenorphine for rural patients? The impact of specialty, location and practice type in Washington State.

We determined the specialty, geographic location, practice type and treatment capacity of waivered clinicians in Washington State. We utilized the April 2011 Drug Enforcement Agency roster of all waivered buprenorphine prescribers and cross-referenced the data with information from the American Medical Association and online resources. Waivered physicians, as compared to Washington State physicians overall, are more likely to be primary care providers, be older, less likely to be younger than 35 years, and more likely to be female. Isolated rural areas have the lowest provider to population ratios. Ten counties lack either a buprenorphine provider or a methadone clinic. In rural areas, waivered physicians work predominately in federally-subsidized safety-net settings, which underscores the need for continued governmental support of primary care and mental health in these settings.