Patient – Matching System Frequently Asked Questions
Last update 3/25/2008
Tips for getting a doctor to contact you. How do I know if I'm paying too much? Why aren’t any doctors contacting me? How do I know the doctor who emailed me is competent and who he/she says he/she is? Why can’t I find this page on other computers I use? How many doctors see my application? Tips for getting a doctor to contacting you.If you have not been contacted you may have to increase the distance you are willing travel. On your registration, reconsider the maximum realistic distance you would go for treatment. (You may be required to go several times in the first couple of weeks)
Map of Participating physicians (zoom in to see if there is a doctor near you) To get more physicians involved, we mail each newly certified physician an invitation to participate. We have sent out over 12,000 invitations total. In areas with many patients seeking treatment and few or no participating physicians, we send a special plea to the certified doctors in that area asking them to join and help the registered patients. That program has been successful at getting doctors in rural areas to join. Here is the postcard we send to the doctors on the patient's behalf: National Map of patients seeking treatment (real-time) See our discussion board to find out what others have done. How do I know if I'm paying too much?In the United States most physicians in private practice are for-profit businesses. Our free enterprise system allows them to charge what they feel the market will bare and it is up to the individual physicians to accept or not accept private insurance. If you do have insurance, many companies will allow you to submit the claim yourself for direct reimbursement. If your plan covers behavioral health conditions demand they pay your claim. Some insurance companies still feel that they can discriminate against people with addictive disorders. Most states have laws requiring insurance plans to cover addiction treatment. HBO addressed this in their documentary “Addiction” and provides some resources. http://www.hbo.com/addiction/treatment/362_not_covered_by_insurance.html Patients should shop around to be sure they are receiving reasonable value for the money they are spending. Prices for in-office opioid addiction treatment with buprenorphine range from $75 initial visit plus $60/monthly follow-up visit, to $2,500 and $300-$500/month. The average seems to be $200- $400 for the initial induction visit and $100-$250/month for follow-up visits. The average daily dose of 16mgs costs about $12/day, but that can vary too. Location and density of certified physicians can affect price too. Physicians may offer additional services and programs that will make direct price comparisons difficult. Also consider different patients will require different levels of care and expertise. Many physicians who get into addiction treatment have been personally touched by addiction in some way. The majority really wants to help and don’t want to overcharge. Like with anything else, there are people out there more interested in the profit and an educated consumer is the best defense. This is where friends and family can really help. Employing the help of friend or family member can be a great asset. When someone is ready to seek treatment, the last thing they want to do is engage in a stressful negotiation, they just want help. Although economics is important, remember that seeking addiction treatment is a lifesaving decision and in the scope of things any price is ultimately worth it. Nonetheless there is no reason to pay more than you have to. Shop around, interview and compare, but don’t let that delay treatment, starting treatment, and then looking for a better value, is a prudent strategy. Sometimes you will be able to find studies being conducted in your area. These can be a great way to get top quality treatment for free. You must carefully read the qualifying criteria and the details of the study. Studies that include “blind” or “placebo” mean that you might not be certain you are receiving the medication or a sugar pill. The best are “open label” “phase IV” studies. This means you know what they will be giving you and it is already FDA approved. www.clinicaltrials.gov keeps a list of ongoing studies. See our discussion board under **Help for Self Payers - Prescription Discounts!** Why aren’t any doctors contacting me?First be sure you are able to receive the physician emails. Be sure there isn't a spam filter or junk mail folder that is intercepting the messages. You should have received a confirmation email immediately after you first registered, this tests the system. The contact emails will be from doc_email@naabt.org with subject "Contact from Doctor (NAABT.org)" To check and see if any doctors have tried to contact you, log in with your patient ID# and password and all contacts will be listed on the patient home page in the yellow shaded area at the bottom of the screen. When logged in you can also send a test email to yourself to be sure you can receive them. The program is still fairly new only launched nationally 9/1/2006. Many doctors have not yet registered or are not participating. Others may be at their 30/100 limit, and many other reasons. One thing to consider is to be sure and enter the furthest distance you are truly willing to travel for the treatment and you might reach more physicians. Also new docs are added almost everyday, so it might just be a matter of time. It is important to know that any patient can be selected at any time, it is not a chronological list. Some patients have been contacted within 5 minutes of registering while others have been on weeks without any contact. Check the map of participating doctors to be sure there is one near you. If not don’t give up one may register at any time. Map of Participating physicians How do I know the doctor who emailed me is competent and who he/she says he/she is?You DON’T! At least not from the information made available from NAABT. Although we make reasonable effort to ensure the list of participants is accurate, we cannot prevent misrepresentation or be certain the doctors are qualified, despite our attempt to verify their identity. It is up to you to check with your state medical board to verify the address and qualifications of the physician before going to any appointment. NAABT,Inc. acts only as an optional and additional tool to help connect individuals in need of buprenorphine treatment to buprenorphine treatment providers. DO NOT rely on it for your only path to healthcare. If you need immediate attention go to an emergency room, call 911, or seek immediate healthcare from a qualified healthcare provider. Inclusion of a member physician is not and does not imply any NAABT referral, endorsement or recommendation, nor does the omission of any individual indicate any NAABT disapproval. see all terms of use of the program here Why can’t I find these pages on other computers I use?NAABT uses cookies and Javascript along with your zip code information to provide relevant content to its users. If some computers are set to block these features it may not display the pages you are looking for. The easiest and most common problem is a wrong saved zip code. To be sure you have the correct zip code stored click “change default zip code” link, found at the bottom of all NAABT.org pages. There you will also find help if the other settings need to be changed. How many doctors see my application?That will depend on two things how many participating doctors are in your area, and far you said you are willing to travel. If you said 30 miles then your information will appear on all the doctor’s lists within 30 miles of you. Please be realistic about how far you really are willing to travel. In the beginning of treatment you may have to go more than once a week. Once, one doctor contacts you, you will only stay on the lists for 72 more hours then removed. If you end up not receiving treatment from any of the doctors who contacted you, you may renew your application, by logging in and selecting "put me back on the list". What emails should I expect from NAABT?We will send you a confirmation email immediately after you register. Next, you may receive a physician contact email, through our site, asking you to call to discuss treatment with that physician, you may receive 0-20 emails in a 72 hour period after the first contact. If you do not receive an email from a doctor in a two week period, you will receive a renewal email from us, if you ignore it you will receive another a week later. 30 days after the last contact we will send a survey request email, and that will be our final communication. For your privacy, you can opt out of the program on the patient home page and all communications will stop.
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