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Associations representing generic drug makers, health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers and pharmacies have sent a letter to top administration and congressional leaders laying out how some policies and proposals to fight COVID-19 are making the situation worse...In an unusual display of coordinated frankness for the industry, a coalition representing generic drug makers, insurers, pharmacies and benefit managers told Vice President Mike Pence and congressional leaders that some policies in place or under consideration to fight COVID-19 are making it difficult and more expensive for patients to get some drugs...Signers of the letter are the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy, America’s Health Insurance Plans, the Association for Accessible Medicines, the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, the National Association of Specialty Pharmacy, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association and Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America...READ MORE

Legislation recently introduced in the US House of Representatives will help curb drug shortages, particularly in light of potential COVID-19 supply chain issues...The Preventing Drug Shortages Act (H.R. 6080) was introduced by a group of Congressional representatives...It would help mitigate shortage triggers by enhancing transparency throughout the drug supply chain process and strengthening FDA interagency efforts to fend off drug shortages...READ MORE

At the beginning of 2019, ...the…Food and Drug Administration began accepting pilot project proposals to identify solutions for meeting the 2023 requirements of the Drug Supply Chain and Security Act. The…Congress passed the DSCSA to improve the security of the pharmaceutical supply chain to help eliminate counterfeit pharmaceuticals and enhance patient safety...the MediLedger Project, a working group of 24 industry leading pharmaceutical manufacturers, distributors, retail chains, logistics partners and solution providers, was accepted by the FDA as one of their approved proposals…The working group’s purpose was to evaluate blockchain technology…in the track and trace of prescription medicines in the United States. The MediLedger Project released…the MediLedger DSCSA Pilot Project Final Report detailing how and why blockchain can meet the 2023 DSCSA requirements for an interoperable, confidential change of ownership system in the US pharmaceutical supply chain…READ MORE

Despite aggressive advocacy efforts by state-based pharmacy organizations and individual New York pharmacists, Gov. Andrew Cuomo this week vetoed legislation to help to rein in costly pharmacy benefit manager practices by giving the superintendent of insurance licensing and regulatory authority over PBMs. This regulatory authority would put an end to the lack of transparency, oversight, and accountability that has allowed PBMs to engage in anticompetitive practices to the harm of the state’s patients and small-business community pharmacies...READ MORE

Here are seven things you may have missed in the enormous $2 trillion economic stimulus package...includes major requirements for insurers to cover diagnostics and services associated with COVID-19 and gives some flexibility to hospitals...But the bill, which includes massive unemployment assistance and help to businesses, includes several other healthcare provisions...READ MORE

1. Requiring Medicare Part D and Medicare Advantage plans to allow for refills and fills for up to three months.
2. Extending healthcare programs through November.
3. Waiving site-neutral payment cuts, 50% rule for long-term care hospitals.
4. Eliminating Medicare sequester and boosting Medicare payments for COVID-19 payments.
5. Requiring payers to cover hospital-made tests.
6. Publishing the cash price for diagnostic testing.

Requiring group and individual health plans to cover preventive services.

A Florida law restricting the quantity of opioids a doctor can prescribe for acute pain to three days’ worth may have led to overall reductions in opioids dispensed to patients in the state,..After the law was passed in July 2018, doctors wrote fewer and shorter prescriptions for opioids...“The policy was intended to reduce the quantity prescribed but it was not expected to decrease opioid use overall,” said study coauthor Dr. Juan Hincapie-Castillo of the University of Florida College of Pharmacy...“But fewer people were getting opioids. That means the law led not only to a reduction in the quantity dispensed, but also to a reduction in the initial decision to prescribe.”...READ MORE

A pharmacy group is taking a wait-and-see approach after California Governor Gavin Newsom announced several drug reforms–including a state generic prescription drug label...If the proposed reforms are approved, California would be the first state to have its own generic drug label...“A major cause of skyrocketing prescription drug prices is bargaining asymmetry, by which the pharmaceutical industry, often wielding monopoly power, is left unchecked, in the absence of a strong counterparty at the bargaining table…” Newsom said in the executive order...Although the California Pharmacists Association applauded the Governor’s “commitment to the healthcare of all Californians and ensuring all patients can continue to have access to affordable, life-saving medications," the organization said in a press release...CPhA declined to say whether it supports a state prescription drug label...READ MORE

Three major spring meetings for pharmacists have been cancelled due to the coronavirus...

• APhA...to cancel its APhA 2020 Meeting and Exhibition...March 20-23
• NACDS was...forced to cancel its 12th Annual NACDS RxIMPACT Day on Capitol Hill...planned for March 10 to 11
• The American College of Clinical Pharmacy...cancelled its 2020 ACCP Spring Forum...held in St. Louis, Miss., April 25 to 26

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill into law allowing pharmacists to test and initiate treatment for influenza and Group A Streptococcus...“The bill will improve convenient access to quality care while removing avoidable pressures on hospitals and acute settings–a meaningful benefit at all times, and a benefit that is top-of-mind amid demanding public health situations ranging from flu outbreaks to the current coronavirus concerns...READ MORE

Despite increased access to naloxone, many individuals in rural communities continue to face barriers to obtaining the medication…However, informed pharmacists can serve as an educational resource, even if their pharmacies do not have the medication in stock...Ongoing efforts to expand prescribing methods through the United States have helped to improve naloxone accessibility. In Georgia, specifically, a standing order decrees that any individual may obtain naloxone from a licensed pharmacy without a prescription. Despite the standing order, pharmacies have been slow to adopt stocking naloxone and dispensing the medication…READ MORE

California would become the first state to contract with generic-drug manufacturers to make prescription medicines to sell to residents, under a plan proposed by Gov. Gavin Newsom that aims to control rising health costs...Mr. Newsom, a Democrat, said it will be part of his new budget proposal. Few details were provided about how the plan would work, what kind of drugs it would produce, how much it would cost to enact or how much it might save the state...Mr. Newsom is betting that California’s purchasing power can help it offer drugs at a lower price than they are offered commercially...READ MORE