Bicycle Health, an addiction treatment provider, has partnered with Wellpath, a provider of correctional and behavioral healthcare services, and the Federal Bureau of Prisons to provide virtual opioid use disorder treatment to incarcerated individuals. Initially, Bicycle Health will provide its services to individuals in residential reentry centers (RRCs) across 42 states, with plans to expand to other states in the future.

Given the security measures in-place at the centers, Bicycle will be offering variations to its service offering. Where video consulting is not an option, Bicycle Health will use audio-based treatment. Additionally, Bicycle will employ variations to its drug testing and prescription practices for the same reasons.

Bicycle Health provides personalized treatment plans that are delivered online via its mobile app. The company offers Medication for Addiction Treatment using Suboxone to reduce opioid cravings. Services provided by Bicycle include access to the patient’s care team, same-day prescription refills, peer support groups, psychotherapy, and in-home diagnostic testing. 

Analyst Quicktake: This program is one of the many virtual healthcare programs that could face challenges due to the recently proposed law changes by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) with regard to prescribing controlled substances virtually. Should the DEA’s proposed law pass, incarcerated individuals in certain federal prisons might not be able to gain access to critical opioid use disorder medications, such as buprenorphine (named on the DEA’s list of controlled substances), which could have a negative impact on patients and startups in the online prescription space.