BAART Expands Buprenorphine Access at 11 Clinics Across Six States

BAART Programs announced Thursday that 11 of its opioid treatment centers across six states will begin offering office-based buprenorphine treatment alongside their established methadone programs, giving patients at those clinics a choice between the two primary medications for opioid use disorder for the first time. The expansion comes just two days after MedMark Treatment Centers — a sister brand under the same parent company, BayMark Health Services — made an identical announcement covering 25 locations in nine states, bringing the combined total to 36 clinics in 15 states within a single week.

The participating BAART locations span a wide geographic range: Chandler, Arizona; Topeka, Kansas; four sites in Louisiana (Alexandria, Breaux Bridge, LaPlace and Hammond); Lincoln and Omaha West in Nebraska; Sioux Falls, South Dakota; and Bremerton and Port Angeles in Washington. Several of those communities sit far from major metropolitan treatment infrastructure, where a single clinic often serves an entire region.

Two medications under one roof

The structural difference between the two medications shapes nearly every aspect of a patient's daily life. Methadone, a full opioid agonist, can legally be dispensed only through federally certified opioid treatment programs, and patients — especially in their first months — typically must appear at the clinic nearly every day for observed dosing. Buprenorphine, a partial agonist most commonly prescribed in combination with naloxone under brand names such as Suboxone, can be prescribed in office-based settings, with eligible patients receiving up to a month's supply at a time.

"Treatment for opioid use disorder is not one-size-fits-all," said Dan Greer, senior vice president of opioid treatment programs at BayMark Health Services. "Expanding buprenorphine services at BAART locations that already provide methadone treatment allows us to offer patients more options while keeping their care connected through an experienced treatment team."

Under the new model, each patient receives an assessment and an individualized treatment plan to determine which medication — and which visit schedule — fits their clinical needs. Patients whose circumstances change can discuss switching options with a team already familiar with their history, rather than starting over with a new provider across town. Both tracks include substance use counseling, recovery support services and ongoing medical oversight.

Why the distinction matters for patients

For someone holding a job, caring for children or living an hour's drive from the nearest clinic, the difference between daily observed dosing and a monthly prescription is not a convenience — it is often the deciding factor in whether treatment happens at all. Research consistently links time in treatment to survival, and the burden of daily clinic attendance is one of the most commonly cited reasons patients leave methadone programs.

The announcement lands in the middle of an active clinical debate over how the two medications compare. A study published August 26 in JAMA Network Open, analyzing more than 5,800 opioid overdose survivors in Ontario, found methadone associated with lower one-year mortality than buprenorphine-naloxone — a difference the authors traced largely to better retention on methadone. An accompanying commentary urged the field to focus less on which medication wins and more on keeping patients on any medication at all, noting that roughly nine in ten patients in the cohort discontinued treatment within a year. Offering both options inside the same program, as BAART and MedMark now plan, directly addresses the matching problem: the medication a patient can actually stay on is the one that works.

A coordinated push by the nation's largest OTP operator

The back-to-back announcements suggest a deliberate strategy by BayMark Health Services, the Lewisville, Texas-based company that operates one of the largest networks of opioid treatment programs in North America. The MedMark expansion announced September 1 reaches 25 clinics across Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, New Mexico, North Carolina and Texas. Together with the BAART sites, the initiative touches 15 states, many of them in the South and Midwest where treatment capacity has lagged overdose rates.

"Bringing these services together strengthens our ability to meet patients where they are in their recovery journey," said Evelyn Sosa, also a senior vice president of opioid treatment programs at BayMark. "Whether methadone or buprenorphine is determined to be the appropriate option, patients can receive treatment from a trusted local team focused on helping them build stability and move forward."

The company said availability, admission requirements, insurance coverage and payment options will vary by location, and encouraged referring professionals to contact participating clinics directly.

The regulatory backdrop

The expansion reflects a longer shift in federal policy that has steadily loosened the rules around who can prescribe buprenorphine and where. The X-waiver — the special federal registration once required to prescribe the medication — was eliminated by Congress in late 2022, allowing any clinician with standard prescribing authority to offer it. Methadone for opioid use disorder, by contrast, remains locked inside the certified clinic system, though legislation to allow addiction physicians to prescribe it through pharmacies has drawn bipartisan support in Congress.

That asymmetry has created an odd geography of care: in many communities, methadone clinics are the only addiction treatment infrastructure that exists, yet the medication with the fewest prescribing barriers was historically unavailable inside them. Folding office-based buprenorphine into established methadone programs turns existing clinics into full-spectrum treatment hubs rather than single-medication dispensaries.

BAART Programs, founded in 1977, operates dozens of locations across the United States and is among the oldest medication-assisted treatment providers in the country. The company did not disclose the cost of the expansion or projected patient volumes at the 11 sites.