- Nevada Medicaid approves policy requiring prior approval after 5 therapy sessions (thenevadaindependent.com)
Nevada Medicaid approved a requirement that therapists receive prior approval before providing more than five therapy sessions to a patient...The new policy, which takes effect on Oct. 1, will require psychologists, therapists and other mental health providers to submit written documentation to the state’s third-party vendor demonstrating the medical necessity of treatment and receive prior approval to continue providing both talk therapy and neurotherapy services after five sessions with a patient. The final policy is a scaled back version of earlier proposals from Medicaid to require prior authorization before the first session or after three sessions, both which received significant pushback from the mental health community over the last few weeks...The policy will only apply to patients enrolled in Medicaid’s fee-for-service program, in which Nevada Medicaid reimburses individual providers for services rendered, and not those who are covered under Medicaid managed care, where the state pays an insurance company a flat fee to provide health services to a patient. About one in four of the 650,000 Nevadans on Medicaid are enrolled in the fee-for-service-program.
- Mental health providers concerned about proposed limits on therapy sessions for Medicaid patients without prior approval (thenevadaindependent.com)Nevada Medicaid shift could impact continuity of mental health care (reviewjournal.com)
Nevada Medicaid will decide next month whether to impose additional requirements for patients to undergo therapy on an ongoing basis, a move the state says will increase accountability and ensure people are getting the care they actually need...mental health providers across the state are decrying as yet another barrier to access to mental health care for a vulnerable population...The Division of Health Care Financing and Policy...to decide whether to require psychologists, therapists and other mental health professionals to provide written documentation demonstrating medical necessity and receive prior approval to continue providing talk therapy or neurotherapy…State officials describe the policy as an effort to be both fiscally and socially responsible, ensuring that providers are only getting paid for services that are actually necessary and that patients are receiving the right treatment for their condition...opponents...argue that it will damage an already-thin safety net for patients by imposing additional administrative burdens on providers…
- US prison ‘fraudulently’ obtained sedative for lethal injection, claims Alvogen (in-pharmatechnologist.com)
Alvogen has won a court order preventing the Nevada Department of Corrections from using its sedative drug product, midazolam, in an execution...A temporary restraining order has blocked the Nevada Department of Corrections from using Alvogen’s midazolam in an execution due to take place yesterday (7/11). The drug was intended to be used as a sedative, prior to delivery of the lethal injections...Alvogen had claimed the Department fraudulently obtained the drug. “Alvogen does not accept direct orders from prison systems or departments of correction,”...“Alvogen also works with its distributors and wholesalers to restrict any sale, either directly or indirectly, of our midazolam product to any prison system or department of corrections,”...Alvogen “does not condone the use of any of its drug products, including midazolam, for use in state sponsored executions,”...
- Nevada announces plans to use controversial sedative midazolam in execution next week (thenevadaindependent.com)
Nevada plans to execute death row inmate Scott Dozier next week using the powerful painkiller fentanyl as well the sedative midazolam — a drug that critics have blamed for executions in other states in which prisoners were seen struggling for breath before they died...The Nevada Department of Corrections offered up formal notice...that it would be putting Dozier to death next Wednesday at 8 p.m. at Ely State Prison. They also released the new lethal injection drug protocol, which comes as the state’s supply of a drug formerly in the combination — diazepam — expired...Attorneys for Dozier didn’t immediately return requests for comment on Tuesday about whether they would take any steps to challenge the protocol, or whether Dozier approves of the method...
- Washoe County School District prepares to renew health insurance contract with Renown; Saint Mary’s contests the process (thenevadaindependent.com)Washoe County school board delays renewing Renown contract after legal concerns raised about pursuing alternatives (thenevadaindependent.com)
The Washoe County School District is poised to renew a contract...with Renown Hospital and its insurance arm to provide health care to teachers and other district employees, but the hospital’s biggest competitor, Saint Mary’s Regional Medical Center, is crying foul over the process, saying it can provide care more cost-effectively and wasn’t given a fair shot to prove it can do so...Saint Mary’s Health Network, which includes the hospital, other health-care facilities and networked providers, submitted a proposal to the school district earlier this summer for a comprehensive health plan that it says could have saved the district anywhere between $5.4 million and $15.9 million in 2019. But the school district rejected the proposal as “non-responsive” because the district had only requested information on hospital services, not a full health plan, adding in a letter that it only sent out the bid in the first place in response to “constant badgering and lobbying” by Saint Mary’s.
- Nevada to get quick state Supreme Court reply on execution (ktvn.com)Officials warn that expiring drugs means Dozier execution must take place before November (thenevadaindependent.com)
The Nevada Supreme Court has agreed to quickly take up the question of whether a drug company can block the use of its product in an inmate's execution...Prison officials won expedited review Friday, just minutes after filing documents saying the state faces the expiration of one of three drugs it wants to use...State Attorney General Adam Laxalt's office says it needs a high court ruling by Oct. 19...That would put twice-convicted killer Scott Raymond Dozier's twice-postponed lethal injection on track for mid-November...Dozier says he wants to die, but judges have for different reasons blocked the never-tried combination of drugs the state drew up after struggling to find lethal injection supplies...Pharmaceutical firm Alvogen says Nevada improperly obtained its sedative midazolam to use in Dozier's execution.
- UPDATE: Judge halts tonight’s Nevada execution, but Supreme Court could hear appeal today (rgj.com)Drug maker goes to Clark County court to stop Dozier execution (reviewjournal.com)Possible execution ‘not the talk of the town’ for Ely residents (reviewjournal.com)DOC lays out protocol for Nevada’s first execution in 12 years (reviewjournal.com)Parents of victim testified at Dozier’s murder trial in Las Vegas (reviewjournal.com)
A Nevada judge effectively put the execution of a two-time killer on hold...after a pharmaceutical company objected to the use of one of its drugs to put someone to death...Clark County District Judge Elizabeth Gonzalez disallowed the use of the drug in a ruling that came down less than nine hours before Scott Raymond Dozier, 47, was to be executed with a three-chemical injection never before tried in the U.S...The Nevada Supreme Court could hear an appeal Wednesday afternoon of the judge's ruling to halt the use of a drug in the execution of a twice-convicted killer...Supreme Court spokesman Michael Sommermeyer says that some of the seven justices are in Chicago for a Nevada State Bar Association meeting, but that the court could meet by teleconference...The state of Nevada had not yet appealed by midday. The state said it would explore whether it could appeal to the Nevada Supreme Court...
- Former Nevada governor, senator Paul Laxalt has died (rgj.com)
- Opioid Task Force reconvenes at state capitol (kolotv.com)Nevada Division of Public and Behavioral Health - Opioid abuse in Nevada (dpbh.nv.gov)
...the Governor’s Opioid State Action Accountability Task Force met in the Capitol building in Carson City, with the conference being teleconferenced to Las Vegas...The meeting provided status reports on the four tracks - prescriber education and guidelines, treatment options and third-party payers, data collection and intelligence sharing, and criminal justice investigations that were developed during the two-day Governor’s Prescription Drug Abuse Summit in 2016...meeting was the third time the opioid state action accountability task force came together, and opioid use has been steadily going down in Nevada since it peaked in 2011
- Nevada State Board of Pharmacy – July 2018 Newsletter (bop.nv.gov)
- Return of Dispensed Drugs to a Pharmacy
National Pharmacy Compliance News
- DEA Launches New Tool to Help Distributors Make Informed Decisions About Customers
- PTCB Launches Certified Compounded Sterile Preparation Technician Program
- DEA Enables Mid-level Practitioners to Prescribe and Dispense Buprenorphine
- New CDC Training Offers CPE on Antibiotic Stewardship
- Walmart to Provide Free Solution to Dispose of Medications With Schedule II Prescriptions
- ASHP Research and Education Foundation Predicts Trends to Affect Pharmacy in 2018
- USP Encourages Pharmacists to Help Patients Find Quality Dietary Supplements
- New CPE Monitor Subscription Plan Helps Pharmacists Track Compliance Via Mobile App
Nevada State Board of Pharmacy News
- Controlled Substance Prescription DEA Number Requirement