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Pharmacists say a recent analysis of Medicare claims data from the 2012–13 flu season helps make the case that for seniors, high-dose influenza virus vaccine leads to better clinical outcomes than standard-dose vaccine…. retrospective cohort study.. found 22% reductions in probable flu infections and flu-related hospitalizations among high-dose vaccine recipients.

Despite having survived a challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal government’s health insurance markets face weighty struggles as they try to keep prices under control,….government’s insurance markets … have been operating for less than two years and are about to lose their training wheels. Start-up funds that have helped stabilize prices and partially pay for administration of the marketplaces are ending,….

Illinois lawmakers have approved a pilot program that would add locking devices on some prescription painkiller prescriptions to ensure only the patient has access to the medication. House Bill 3219 would establish a one-year program…would require every...prescription for a Schedule II controlled substance containing hydrocodone to be dispensed only “in a non-reusable medicine locking closure package,” defined as any alphanumeric combination locking closure mechanism that can only be unlocked with a user-generated, resettable code.

….foot care by podiatrists for adult Medicaid recipients failed to gain the Nevada Legislature’s approval this year…Nevada podiatrists say the state risks spending more money to address bigger problems that could be prevented…Podiatrists say they are…better trained at providing routine foot, toenail and ankle care than general practitioners.

Studies have reported that up to half of patients discontinue prescribed therapies soon after hospital discharge. This is no surprise to pharmacists,… an analysis that found adherence to these treatments is improving, but still nowhere near ideal…..encouraged by more widespread use of evidence-based guidelines,…

Animal testing of cosmetic products and ingredients, and the sale of newly animal-tested cosmetics, would be phased out under legislation introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives…Passage of the Humane Cosmetics Act will bring the United States in line with more than 30 other countries that have already implemented similar bans.

Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy .. “The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision upholding the contested language in the ACA is positive news for millions of Americans who will continue to have access to affordable prescription drugs,…. this decision has averted significant disruption to the health care marketplace…”

For the second time in four Supreme Court terms, Chief Justice John Roberts has broken with conservatives and rescued the Affordable Care Act from potential oblivion. Roberts, an unlikely hero of sorts for the law, wrote the majority opinion on Thursday upholding a key provision of Obamacare that helps provide health-insurance subsidies to more than 6 million Americans.

...each pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit health care fraud...the defendants fraudulently billed Medicare approximately $2.5 million....admitted to billing Medicare over $1.2 million for pentostatin, an expensive anticancer chemotherapeutic medication....despite never administering any pentostatin.