- Large-scale COPD patient network in the works (medicaleconomics.modernmedicine.com)
Program to enroll 125,000 COPD patients to gather data and integrate social online platform to address third leading cause of death in U.S. The COPD Foundation’s COPD360 program is being assembled to accelerate research and foster innovation...
- California Court Strikes Down ‘Pay to Delay’ (news.heartland.org)
The California Supreme Court has ruled pay-to-delay agreements among pharmaceutical companies violate state antitrust laws. The case came about after a brand name pharmaceutical company, Bayer, maker of the blockbuster antibiotic Cipro, paid Barr, a maker of generic drugs, to delay sales of a biosimilar generic drug, thus forestalling competition against Bayer.
- Kentucky Physician Charged with Prescribing Pain Medications that Resulted in the Deaths of Five Patients (dea.gov)
Jaime Guerrero faces additional charges including conspiracy, money laundering and health care fraud….a physician charged with prescribing pain medications that resulted in the deaths of five patients, unlawful distribution or dispensing of controlled substances and health care fraud, now faces the additional charges of conspiracy, money laundering and an additional count of health care fraud..
- House leaders rethink Cures bill’s Medicare offsets (smartbrief.com)
House leaders delayed putting the 21st Century Cures Act up for a floor vote as they reconsider …. proposal to cut Medicare Part D to pay for medical research. "If the 21st Century Cures initiative can only be advanced by cutting billions from America's premier health program -- Medicare -- then its costs outweigh any potential benefits….”
- FDA meetings in July to address naloxone use, reformulated OxyContin (drugtopics.modernmedicine.com)
FDA has announced its plans to hold a scientific workshop…..on naloxone uptake and use in specific medical and nonmedical settings to reduce fatalities associated with opioid overdose.
- Researchers gain support and insights at the 2nd Annual Mountain West Clinical and Translational Research Meeting (unr.edu)
Researchers….. gathered at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas ….. to share successes and opportunities in clinical and translational research at the Second Annual Meeting of the Mountain West Clinical and Translational Research-Infrastructure Network. UNLV and the University of Nevada School of Medicine are co-administrators of a….$20 million grant supported by the National Institutes of Health…..
- Medicare’s CCM Code: Extra Money or Extra Pain? (healthleadersmedia.com)
Many doctors are turning down money attached to Medicare's long-sought chronic care management code, citing the cost of setting up systems to meet its "onerous" requirements. ……..pays doctors about $42.60 a month per qualifying beneficiary,…
- ASHP Urges FDA to Delay Enforcement of Track and Trace Requirements (ashp.org)
ASHP has asked the Commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration to give hospitals and health systems more time to comply with track and trace requirements ...Title II of the Drug Quality and Security Act requires that prescription drug data be tracked through the supply chain, from the manufacturer or end user, or dispenser.
- Never Event Frequency ‘Troubling,’ Standards Lacking (healthleadersmedia.com)
Mandatory state reporting of adverse medical errors is lagging and changes are needed in the way hospitals and health systems define and analyze so-called "never events," researchers say. Changes are needed in the way the health system defines, collects information about, and analyzes so-called "never events," according to Johns Hopkins patient safety experts…
- Hepatitis C Drug Lawsuits Filed, Challenges Insurance Company Decisions (news.heartland.org)
Consumers across the nation are starting to file lawsuits against insurers who deny them access to expensive new hepatitis C treatments. Two lawsuits allege Anthem Blue Cross refused to pay for individual women’s Harvoni treatments because it was not deemed "medically necessary."