Author: Peter

Nevada Medicaid officials are putting a temporary stop on the enrollment of some mental health providers while new certification requirements are considered...the largely federally funded state agency will put a six-month pause on enrolling new qualified behavioral aides and qualified mental health associates...State mental health groups had brought up concerns that some enrolled as either provider type were performing services without proper qualification…Nevada Medicaid acting Administrator Cody Phinney also expressed concern over potential improper billing for codes including medication training and support and crisis intervention...

Nicole Grassano, PTNN, Pharmacy Week in Review, this weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

The British take enormous pride in their National Health Service…Get sick in Britain and you can see a doctor, get a scan or even have surgery for free...Unfortunately the system also depends on tax money that can’t keep pace with an ageing population who need greater care than ever. Its deficit is estimated to be closing in on £1 billion ($1.3 billion)...Many believe technology can make the NHS more efficient, and so it has partnered with private companies...to serve NHS patients at a lower cost, by connecting them with doctors on a video call or even an automated symptom checker...Some worry that such deals spell the slow-and-steady privatization of the NHS and a move (God forbid) towards a system that looks more like that of the United States. But Hancock (Matt Hancock - health secretary) believes these partnerships are necessary if the NHS is going to survive.

Pfizer will raise prices on 41 of its prescription drugs in January after initially putting off those plans this summer amid pressure from President Trump...The drug giant will increase the list price of about 10 percent of its drugs...Most of the increases will be 5 percent…"We believe the best means to address affordability of medicines is to reduce the growing out-of-pocket costs that consumers are facing due to high deductibles and co-insurance, and ensure that patients receive the benefit of rebates at the pharmacy counter," Pfizer's outgoing CEO Ian Read said in a statement...

Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi has added Walgreens and CVS Health as defendants in the state's massive lawsuit against the opioid industry...Legal analysts say Florida and other plaintiffs are targeting the distributors and pharmacies, in part, because they have deep pockets...The...lawsuit accuses the drug stores and pharmaceutical distributors like Cardinal Health, Amerisource Bergen and McKesson of playing as big a role in the proliferation of opioid addiction as drug manufacturers like...Purdue Pharmaceuticals and Johnson & Johnson's Janssen Pharmaceuticals...

Just as hospital pharmacists moved out of the basement and into direct patient care in the 1980s and 1990s, outpatient pharmacists are moving out from behind the counter and into medical practices...There is a demand for pharmacists from the physician side in ambulatory care...Allegheny Health Network...is putting pharmacists into about 250 different practices that are part of its accountable care organization, a payment model in which the health system receives higher reimbursement if it improves quality and reduces costs…The present model, which is physician-centric, is not getting us to that quadruple aim of better outcomes, lower costs, better patient satisfaction, and improving the work life of our healthcare providers. We are moving to a patient-focused model using team-based care...The pharmacist is not able to bring in direct revenue, but you can see a decrease in 30-day readmissions, a decrease in morbidity, a decrease in ER admissions because you have a pharmacist doing medication management and reconciliation. It is a matter of recognizing that the costs you are saving are different from direct billing...

The Food and Drug Administration is seeking public comment on a proposed framework for regulating software applications developed by drugmakers for use in conjunction with their prescription drug products...The new approach would treat most prescription drug apps, including dose calculators, symptom trackers and medication reminders, as promotional labeling...drugmakers would need only to submit to the agency copies of the content of what the apps display to consumers, following existing reporting requirements for promotional materials...In other cases, such as when a drugmaker wants to show that software has an effect on a clinical outcome and wants to include information about the software in the FDA-required drug labeling, prior FDA approval would be required...

Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

In a city where quality customer service and visitor experience run the economy, professionals at UNLV’s medical school said embracing the same principles for sick patients will determine which future physicians rise above the pack...The level of service you have to provide has to mimic level of service that hotels provide to their guests…in Las Vegas, medical care providers must also go the extra mile to meet the standards of other industries’ high bar for customer service...that means offering tourists a courier service to deliver prescriptions to hotel rooms and daily phone calls checking in on the patient until the end of the patient’s Las Vegas vacation...

...Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and health insurer Humana Inc are in preliminary discussions to take equity stakes in each other...Humana said it would partner with Walgreens, with its unit operating senior-focused primary care clinics inside two Walgreens stores in Kansas...The companies are discussing the possibility of expanding that venture, among other options...