- DEA to share prescription drug data with 50 attorneys general, crack down on drugmakers (fiercehealthcare.com)
The Drug Enforcement Agency has reached an agreement with 50 attorneys general to share prescription drug data with one another to support ongoing investigations...from its Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System, which collects 80 million prescription drug transactions from manufacturers and distributors each year...Attorney General Jeff Sessions...said the data-sharing pact will “make both the DEA and our state partners more effective at finding evidence of crime.”...Exactly how that data sharing agreement would operate remains fuzzy...
- Canadian pharmacy fined $34 million for illegal imports (ktvn.com)
An online pharmacy that bills itself as Canada's largest was fined $34 million...for importing counterfeit cancer drugs and other unapproved pharmaceuticals into the United States...U.S. prosecutors say Canada Drugs' business model is based entirely on illegally importing unapproved and misbranded drugs not just from Canada, but from all over the world. The company has made at least $78 million through illegal imports, including two that were counterfeit versions of the cancer drugs Avastin and Altuzan that had no active ingredient, prosecutors said...judge...approved federal prosecutors' recommended sentences that include $29 million forfeited, $5 million in fines and five years' probation for Canada Drugs...also sentenced Thorkelson (founder, Kris Thorkelson) to six months' house arrest, five years' probation and a $250,000 fine...
- Pharmacy Week in Review: April 13, 2018 (pharmacytimes.com)
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.
- CMS Puts Off Decision on Lowering Drug Prices Patients Pay at the Pharmacy (ptcommunity.com)
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has laid out a bevy of initiatives that officials said would reduce drug prices for patients covered by the Medicare Part D prescription drug program—but they have made no decisions yet...That issue is whether the discounts that pharmacy benefit managers negotiate for drugs—the “rebates” that lawmakers have been raising questions about in recent months—as well as other fees, should go toward lowering the price that a patient pays at the pharmacy...“While we are not finalizing any policy in this area at this time, we appreciate the detailed submissions from stakeholders, and we are evaluating these comments as we consider future proposals,” said CMS Administrator Seema Verma...It’s unclear whether lowering the amount of money that the patient pays at the pharmacy would actually lower the total amount of health care spending. According to an analysis by CMS that was part of the proposed rule in November, patients would indeed pay less, but the government would pay more...
- Backed by medical groups, value-based payments for opioid addiction treatment could be imminent (fiercehealthcare.com)PATIENT-CENTERED OPIOID ADDICTION TREATMENT (P-COAT) (asam.org)
Two medical associations have announced a collaborative value-based payment model for opioid addiction treatment...The payment model, announced by the American Society of Addiction Medicine and the American Medical Association, is aimed at improving care coordination and lowering healthcare spending by reducing costly emergency department visits and hospitalizations...The model increases utilization of and access to medications for opioid treatment, combining them with the appropriate level of medical, psychological and social support services which can be delivered at multiple providers…The model is for outpatient care only...a basic version of the model is already in operation with Optum…the groups have discussed the model with officials at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, as well as its innovation center, which is responsible for new demonstration programs.
- Reno’s new mental health and addiction hospital opens doors (kolotv.com)
Reno Behavioral Healthcare Hospital has officially opened its doors to patients. The behavioral healthcare hospital is the first facility of its kind to be built from the ground up in our community in more than 35 years...The 80,000-square-foot facility is at 6940 Sierra Center Parkway near Target in the Meadowood area of south Reno...The hospital offers 124 beds, and inpatient and outpatient programs for psychiatric and addiction treatment for patients of all ages...represents a new day for mental health and addiction services. Our goal is to raise the standard of care and give people another option for their treatment that has been lacking for many years...
- CVS’ Caremark customers now have a tool that makes it easier to find less expensive drugs (cnbc.com)
CVS Health is introducing a system to provide customers with greater insight into drug costs and less expensive alternatives. The plan will first be available to those using CVS' pharmacy benefit manager Caremark. Consumers are often frustrated by the difficulty of comparing the cost of treatments...CVS Health wants to make it easier for its pharmacists to find less costly drugs for patients...The drugstore chain is introducing a system that will check for less expensive alternatives, higher quantities at lower costs and discounts. CVS hopes it can help lower costs for its customers and in doing so, make sure they pick up their prescriptions...We want to be known as the retail pharmacy that does the most to help save patients money...The power of this tool, the RX Savings Finder, is we have access to the information that we need to be able to provide options to our customers to save them money...
- U.S. appeals court strikes down Maryland drug price-gouging law (reuters.com)
A federal appeals court...declared unconstitutional a 2017 Maryland law that lets the state attorney general sue generic drugmakers who sharply raise prices on medications...The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals sided with the main trade group for generic pharmaceutical companies in holding that the law violated the U.S. Constitution by regulating the price of transactions that occur outside of Maryland...the law violated the Constitution’s bar against states interfering with interstate commerce, by targeting wholesale rather than retail pricing in transactions that occur largely outside of Maryland...
- This Week in Managed Care: April 13, 2018 (ajmc.com)
Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- ‘Pharma bro’ fraudster Martin Shkreli ordered to pay $388,000 in restitution to swindled investor (cnbc.com)
A federal judge...ordered "pharma bro" scammer Martin Shkreli to immediately pay a defrauded hedge fund investor about $388,000 in restitution, roughly half of what the investor asked for… The order comes a month after Judge Kiyo Matsumoto sentenced Shkreli to seven years in prison for defrauding that investor, Richard Kocher, and a number other people, as well as for conspiring to manipulate stock shares...In addition to his prison sentence, Matsumoto also imposed a fine of $75,000 on the 35-year-old Shkreli and ordered him to forfeit almost $7.4 million in assets to the federal government...