The Drug Addiction Treatment Act (DATA) of 2000 created a pathway for clinicians to obtain waivers (“DATA waivers”) to treat patients with opioid use disorder (OUD) outside of an opioid treatment program, provided the clinicians met certification and training requirements. Prior research mainly relies on DATA-waiver status or prescription data alone to estimate the workforce, likely leading to overestimates.

This article examines trends in DATA-waivered clinicians’ active participation in prescribing buprenorphine, overall and by patient limits, between January 2017 and May 2021.