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

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.

Walgreens Boots Alliance is downsizing its U.K. retail footprint...The company is closing some 200 of its more than 2,500 Boots stores in the U.K., consolidating them with other Boots locations. The shutterings are part of Walgreens’ “global cost management transformation program,” which is expected to provide a good part of the funding required for its technology upgrades and development investments...In a statement, Boots UK managing director Sebastian James said the stores to be shuttered were local pharmacy stores in locations where the company has a large number of stores within close proximity...READ MORE

Samantha DiGrande, Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

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.

As a new Idaho law allowing pharmacy technicians to prescribe naloxone takes effect, Albertsons announced that its Boise-area pharmacy technicians are the first in the state who have been trained to do so...The law, signed in February, makes Idaho the first state in the nation to add pharmacy technicians to the ranks of pharmacists, physicians and nurse practitioners in being able to prescribe the opioid overdose reversal drug. Idaho Gov. Brad Little also issued an executive order creating an advisory group in the state to guide healthcare decisions and strategies related to opioid misuse...“Idaho is leading other states in the steps we are taking to expand access to this critical medication and in our efforts to address the opioid crisis,” Little said. “Training pharmacy technicians and all health professionals to prescribe naloxone further reaches our underserved and rural communities. Albertsons has been a key partner in increasing the scope of practice for both pharmacists and technicians to continue improving access to beneficial and lifesaving medications.”...READ MORE

CGH Medical Center pharmacists say the system’s Med Card gives patients a better way to keep track of their medications – and say using the software has helped increase clinical knowledge...At CGH Medical Center in Sterling, Illinois, preventable readmissions represent a huge financial and clinical uncertainty...

• THE PROBLEM
• PROPOSAL
• MARKETPLACE
• MEETING THE CHALLENGE
• RESULTS

Pharmacists counseled more than 650 patients in the first eight months of the program at the 97-bed facility. They identified medication interventions in nearly half of all discharges. Depending on the intervention made, these changes had a major impact on patient safety and the cost of their medications...“While we haven’t been able to measure it yet, we are looking into how this program will impact our overall readmission rates and penalties, as well as HCAHPS scores,” said Tim Dunphy, director of pharmacy at CGH Medical Center...READ MORE

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

Pharma giant Pfizer...named former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb to its board of directors, less than three months after he left his post at the agency...Since departing the FDA, Gottlieb has also rejoined the American Enterprise Institute, a Washington, D.C. think tank, and New Enterprise Associates, a venture capital firm, both organizations he worked at before becoming FDA chief...Former commissioners frequently join industry boards following their tenure at the FDA. Robert Califf, Gottlieb's immediate predecessor, serves on the board of Cytokinetics, a small biotech developing drugs for neuromuscular and heart diseases...READ MORE

A self-declared “caravan” of Americans bused across the Canada-U.S. border...seeking affordable prices for insulin and raising awareness of “the insulin price crisis” in the United States...The group called Caravan to Canada started the journey from Minneapolis, Minnesota...and stopped at London, Ontario...to purchase life-saving type 1 diabetes medication at a pharmacy...The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported in May that Canadian pharmacists have seen a “quiet resurgence” in Americans coming to Canada looking for cheaper pharmaceuticals...Quinn Nystrom, a leader of T1International’s Minnesota chapter, said on May via Twitter that the price of insulin in the United States per vial was $320, while in Canada the same medication under a different name was $30...READ MORE