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..Florida Board of Pharmacy approved a rule change…aimed at training pharmacists to change their mindset about prescriptions for controlled substances, in a reaction that followed pleas from desperate patients unable to get pain medications…change switches the rule from a focus on reasons to reject prescriptions for highly addictive narcotics to an emphasis on ensuring that legitimate patients get the medications…"Instead of starting out with trying to find a reason to doubt a prescription, you start off with an assumption that everything in the prescription is good…rule also includes requiring pharmacists to take a two-hour, "Validation of Prescriptions for Controlled Substances" course to educate pharmacists about ensuring access to pain medications for "all patients with a valid prescription."

Las Vegas Valley's immature health care system is experiencing a prolonged growth spurt. In the aftermath of the launch of UNLV's medical school, last month MountainView Hospital got word that its internal medicine residency program had been approved by the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education…. A dearth of residency programs has greatly limited the state's ability to attract and retain doctors… Many of our medical students, or other students who are from Las Vegas, had to leave the state to get their training…"This is a significant step forward in the development of medical education in the Las Vegas Valley," said MountainView CEO Chris Mowan…Thanks to MountainView and HCA (Hospital Corporation of America) for making it happen..

Jennifer L. Costello, PharmD, BCPS, BC-ADM, ambulatory care clinical pharmacist at Saint Barnabas Medical Center

• Episode 1 New Pharmacological Agents for Treatment of Obesity
• Episode 2 Mechanisms of Action for New Weight-Loss Agents
• Episode 3 Risk and Benefit Profiles of Weight-Loss Medications
• Episode 4 What Pharmacists Should Prepare Patients for When Taking Weight-Loss Medications
• Episode 5 Key Takeaways from Recent Landmark Studies of Weight-Loss Drugs
• Episode 6 Counseling Points for Pharmacists with Patients on Weight-Loss Medications

…retail giant…will offer free blood glucose, blood pressure and vision screenings along with product samples and health insurance information at more than 4,400 stores nationwide on Oct. 10… "We expect to set record-breaking numbers during this single day because we will have hundreds of thousands of both screenings and immunizations,"…we believe that during this health fair more than 3,000 Americans will learn that they may have diabetes, and another 7,000 will find out that they have high blood pressure."…."This is a continuation of our commitment to helping our customers live healthier lives,"…"We have a long history of making health care more affordable and accessible…

California wants to cap drug prices, but Big Pharma isn't having it. Amid a growing backlash over drug pricing, companies such as Johnson & Johnson and Bristol-Myers Squibb are funneling millions of dollars into stamping out a new proposal that would curb drug spending in the state…other companies including Pfizer, Eisai, Purdue Pharma, The Medicines Co., Sunovion Pharmaceuticals and Daiichi Sankyo contributed to a fund that would quash a state ballot initiative…The initiative, dubbed the California Drug Price Relief Act, would only allow government health programs to strike contracts with drugmakers at prices that are the same or lower than those paid by the Department of Veterans Affairs, which usually gets steep discounts on meds from manufacturers…

Pharmacists should take some time to counsel patients on the pros and cons of each antidepressant to help them select the best regimen…Decision aids produced by the Mayo Clinic inform health care providers of the nuances between medications and how each drug may affect a patient…Here are 5 key facts about these antidepressants that warrant clarification for patients:

1. Weight Changes
2. Sexual Issues
3. Insomnia or Sleepiness
4. Cost
5. Stopping Treatment

Pharmacists can lead by example by promoting the FDA’s patient safety initiatives in their practice settings…FDA’s Safe Use Initiative involves a series of recommendations aimed at reducing preventable harm from medication errors…Pharmacies, hospitals, and other health care entities that regularly interact with patients and their medications are among the partners that the FDA hopes to actively engage in its comprehensive initiative…Here are a few current projects in the Safe Use Initiative that pertain to pharmacists:

1. Acetaminophen overuse
2. Atypical antipsychotic use in pediatric populations
3. Medication non-adherence
4. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug use in elderly patients

Department of Health and Human Services has issued the long-awaited final rules changing the requirements of the Meaningful Use program for 2015-2017 and implementing Stage 3 of the program…[s]hift the paradigm so health IT becomes a tool for care improvement, not an end in itself,"…rule eases the reporting burdens, simplifies requirements, adds flexibility, supports interoperability and improves outcomes. It also transitions to a new and more responsive regulatory framework…moves physicians out of the Meaningful Use program into a new merit based incentive payment system..

Some of the changes include:

• Providers and state Medicaid agencies will now have until Jan. 1, 2018, to comply and prepare for the next set of system improvements
• Stage 3 will now be optional in 2017
• Stage 3 will have eight objectives; more than 60 percent require interoperability; public health reporting with have flexibility options
• APIs will be required
• Cybersecurity requirements have been strengthened
• The reporting period for 2015 will be only 90 days for all providers, for new providers in 2016 and 2017 and for any provider moving to Stage 3 of the program in 2017

Nick Gentile, Director of State Grassroots Advocacy and Political Action for ASHP, discusses different legislative issues generating buzz on the state level, including biosimilars.

PCSK9 inhibitors…offer the promise of reductions in blood cholesterol levels…This broad indication sets the practice of cardiology on a collision course with specialty pharmaceutical pricing models…reserved for drugs that benefited relatively limited patient populations…these therapies may also lead to savings down the road, by reducing rates of cardiovascular events…There will surely be formal economic evaluations of these data, and there are long-term outcome studies under way to elucidate the potential effect of these therapies on cardiovascular event rates…it is apparent that the prices for these drugs will result in net costs to the health care system, even if they may eventually be found to offer good value for the money…expected total annual costs in the billions, it's important to ask who will bear these costs...Pricing pressure on innovative products would drive a fundamental restructuring of the industry and further increase the financial challenges of bringing scientific innovations to the market. It is important that we manage these downside risks carefully as we work toward a more sustainable pricing model in this market..