For organizations that have gotten clinicians waivered, have created protocols to treat opioid addiction and who still struggle with uptake of these new MAT protocols, you’re not alone. Protocols in hospitals and organizations get created every day. Many are never used. And good evidence suggests that the majority of clinicians who obtain their DEA-X waivers either never use them or drastically underutilize them.

What gives?

The field of behavioral economics calls the difference between our intentions and our actual behavior the intention-action gap. Interventions called ‘nudges’ help close that gap using non-financial incentives with the goal of driving behavior change.