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

Flu season is already shaping up to be one of the worst seasons in over a decade, claiming the lives of nearly 20 children across the U.S. and 7% of senior deaths over the last month, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention...One of the reasons for the massive outbreak this year...is that it involves the dreaded H3N2, a strain of the influenza that isn’t “very well-matched” with the current vaccines that are being distributed across the U.S...In the making of the vaccine as it was being grown in eggs...it got mutilated a bit, so it drifted away from a really, really good match...even in a very good year the influenza vaccine is only about 60% effective. And, the projection of how effective it is going to be against the H3N2 this year is about 30%...Sanofi, who is one of the largest makers of flu vaccines...has been “continuously focused on improving influenza vaccines” over the years...This is evident in our introduction of Fluzone High-Dose Influenza vaccine, the first and only flu vaccine shown to have superior efficacy against influenza compared to Fluzone vaccine in adults 65 and older, and our recent acquisition of Protein Sciences, which has developed a recombinant DNA technology system for the production of recombinant proteins. The company additionally has ongoing efforts to develop a broadly protective influenza vaccine that would be effective despite natural mutation of flu strains over time...

Grand River Hospital and Medical Center, a 13-bed critical access hospital in Western Colorado which sees an average of seven patients a day, has saved about $300,000 in staffing costs by using telehealth tools to establish a round-the-clock pharmacy...Telehealth products and services is on the rise among small and rural hospitals...for instance, NewYork-Presbyterian forged a pact to provide emergency physicians via Walgreens in-store kiosks...Cleveland Clinic inked an arrangement with CVS to use American Well’s telemedicine platform to make clinicians accessible for visits from CVS Minute Clinics in Ohio...Telepharmacy has become its own specialty among tech vendors, including CPS TELEpharmacy, eVisit, PipelineRx, ScriptPro Telepharmacy and TelePharm...Nancy McClew, PharmD, director of pharmacy at Grand River Hospital and Medical Center, said the investment in the telemedicine technology is well worth it compared with the cost of staffing the pharmacy 24/7...“Grand River also has generated savings through tele-pharmacist interventions, the majority of which are safety related – clarifications, QI, prevention, renal assessment, therapeutic,” McClew said. “In Q3 2017, pharmacists documented more than 350 interventions, representing more than $50,000 in cost savings.”

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Replacing daily pills with a weekly regimen could help patients stick to their dosing schedule... Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Brigham and Women’s Hospital have developed a capsule that can deliver a week’s worth of human immunodeficiency virus drugs in a single dose. This advance could make it much easier for patients to adhere to the strict schedule of dosing required for the drug cocktails used to fight the virus...The new capsule is designed so that patients can take it just once a week, and the drug will release gradually throughout the week. This type of delivery system could not only improve patients’ adherence to their treatment schedule but also be used by people at risk of HIV exposure to help prevent them from becoming infected...The MIT/BWH team is also working on adapting this technology to other diseases that could benefit from weekly drug dosing. Because of the way that the researchers designed the polymer arms of the capsule, it is fairly easy to swap different drugs in and out, they say. They are also working on capsules that could stay in the body for much longer periods of time...

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc...will provide customers filling prescriptions for opioids with a packet of powder that will help them dispose of leftover medication in order to help curb misuse and abuse...The company said patients filling any new class II opioid prescriptions at its pharmacies will receive a free packet of the product - called DisposeRx - when filling a new prescription. Patients with chronic Class II opioid prescriptions will be offered a free packet every six months...In order to safely dispose of opioids, patients would add warm water and the DisposeRx powder to their pill bottle, which then forms a biodegradable gel around the pills.

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

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