The Opioid Epidemic: A Solo Physician’s Hopeful Response

Effective pharmacological treatment for opioid dependence was introduced more than 15 years ago, yet the opioid epidemic continues to ravage our country and there are still important barriers that prevent patients from receiving the care that they need. The expansion of health insurance does not seem to mitigate this problem and, in fact, health insurance may be a hindrance for proper care.

What if the solution is to simply let doctors help patients directly and personally? Our guest today gives us an extraordinary testimony of what can be accomplished when physicians are free to care for patients privately, without the stigma associated with addiction and rehabilitation clinics.

Dr. Molly Rutherford (twitter) graduated from Eastern Virginia Medical School in 2003 and completed a Family Medicine Residency in Portsmouth, Virginia, in 2006. She and her family moved to Kentucky after residency so that she could practice rural medicine. In 2008, she obtained her DATA 2000 waiver to treat opioid dependence with buprenorphine, and she became Board Certified in Addiction Medicine in 2012.

After a series of frustrations with employment and the dysfunctional health care system, she started her practice with the goal of providing comprehensive, individualized care to her patients at an affordable price, without the interference of third-party payers. Dr. Rutherford is past president of the Kentucky Chapter of ASAM and current president of the Kentucky Academy of Family Physicians. Dr. Rutherford is also a member of the US Health and Human Services Pain Management Best Practices Inter-agency Task Force. She lives with her husband, a homicide detective with Louisville Metro Police Department, and their 2 sons in LaGrange, Kentucky.