In most areas of the US, the need for buprenorphine treatment outweighs availability. Despite the opportunity to increase access due to their high degree of accessibility and their doctoral-level training, community pharmacists involvement in buprenorphine treatment has been largely relegated to their role as regulatory enforcement rather than in care provision. Direct clinical involvement of the community pharmacist in buprenorphine provision within collaborative care models has been previously shown to be feasible, and represents the potential for nationwide scalability to increase buprenorphine access through same-visit prescribing/dispensing within patients’ local communities. To further advance this scalable model, we aimed to (1) formalize an adaptable collaborative pharmacy practice agreement (CPPA) for community pharmacists engaging in buprenorphine therapy management using a community advisory board (CAB), including semi-structured key informant interviews to supplement CAB input on the CPPA; and (2) perform a 50-State Legal/Regulatory Review to delineate what advanced roles a pharmacist can provide under a buprenorphine CPPA in each state.
