Author: Peter

...17,000 pharmacy locations contract with a 340B-eligible covered entity...Walgreens remains the biggest player, although Walmart, CVS, and Rite Aid collectively now account for about one-quarter of contract pharmacy locations....threaten to disrupt third-party payers’ pharmacy networks and confound manufacturers’ channel strategies. The new GAO report provides further evidence of problems.

National Community Pharmacy Association has announced the three pharmacy student teams...for its Good Neighbor Pharmacy NCPA Pruitt-Schutte Student Business Plan Competition... The competition is aimed at motivating.. students to develop a business model for either purchasing an existing community pharmacy or opening a new one. The finalists…

• South Carolina College of Pharmacy
• University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences College of Pharmacy
• University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy

"Consumer choice is playing an increasingly important role in influencing where patients receive their health care, particularly for low-acuity and less-complex services,"..."Not-for-profit hospitals that excel at providing convenient care, high-quality consumer service, and demonstrated value will gain patient loyalty, improve market share and boost credit strength."

Lawmakers...accused ...administration of being slow to implement inspector general recommendations on fraud in the Medicare prescription drug program...has not fully implemented nine recommendations...to crack down on fraud in ...Medicare Part D, even though some of those recommendations were made as far back as 2006.

University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy has created a program that will allow working pharmacy professionals to earn a master of science in pharmacy business administration...The...program was piloted with CVS employees…transition into leadership roles and until now did not have a program that focused on the business of medicines..

Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it would for the first time make its data, including Medicare claims, available to industry, in a bid to boost innovation… plans to begin accepting research proposals seeking data…jumpstart creativity in using the data, "We expect a stream of new tools for beneficiaries and care providers that improve care and personalize decision-making,..

Hospital datacenters are being overwhelmed by the ongoing data explosion. Pushed to acquire, analyze, secure and deliver actionable intelligence to business managers, clinicians, or customers, many datacenters are struggling to keep pace…as they do healthcare IT leaders are staring down seven critical pain points.

1. Moving datacenters into the cloud.
2. Mastering compliance and security.
3. Job requirements for the new IT.
4. Regional variations inspire and challenge.
5. Enterprise apps.
6. Automation's emerging role.
7. High availability and disaster recovery

California and Oregon will be the first states in the nation to allow women to get birth control pills and other hormonal contraceptives directly from their pharmacists – without a doctor’s prescription.

'Readmissions represent a failure to optimize patients' clinical condition for discharge or set them up with appropriate post-discharge care'...Smartphones are playing a big part in helping them get there...."healthcare organizations are widely beginning to deploy mobile technologies with the aim of engaging patients." ...a way to meet requirements for meaningful use and Medicare reimbursement requirements...

..ways to reduce incorrect assessments of patient conditions...False-positive alarms cause anxiety for care teams, patients and families, and can lead to clinicians becoming desensitized to true patient emergencies while placing pressure on already constrained hospital resources...