- Britain raps Pfizer over huge jump in epilepsy drug price (newsdaily.com)
Britain’s competition watchdog has accused Pfizer and Flynn Pharma of breaching UK and European law by ramping up the cost of an epilepsy drug,..by as much as 2,600 percent…Competition and Markets Authority said …each abused a dominant position by charging "excessive and unfair" prices for phenytoin sodium capsules.
- Various telehealth definitions, policies ‘confusing’ for providers (fiercehealthit.com)
48 states…all have definitions of telehealth or telemedicine written into …their Medicaid program, differences in those definitions are creating "confusing environments" for end users, .. 47 states have some form of reimbursement for telehealth… how it is reimbursed varies widely…16 states reimburse for remote patient monitoring… remote monitoring include only offering payments to home health agencies…limiting which conditions are reimbursed.
- CVS banned tobacco. Now its sales are hurting (wesh.com)
Sales at CVS Health are getting "smoked."… CVS became the first major pharmacy chain in America to stop selling cigarettes and other tobacco products in its stores. The drug store chain said it was the right thing to do -- even though it would hurt sales….prescription sales continue to rise, general merchandise sales tumbled nearly 8% last quarter on a same-store basis.
- New pharmacy delivery app hits Manhattan (drugstorenews.com)ZipDrug (zipdrug.com)
new app is looking to give Manhattanites a reprieve from standing in line at the pharmacy. Zipdrug,…allows users to have their prescriptions delivered on-demand within an hour… bicycle messengers will pick up medications — except for controlled substances — from the user’s preferred pharmacy,…so long as the prescriber submits an electronic script.
- China gets tougher for Western drugmakers (newsdaily.com)
Chinese market is getting tougher for Western pharmaceutical companies ...a rising healthcare bill and prices come under pressure….second largest market for prescription medicines… has drawn major investment from global drugmakers…— but growth rates are now slowing markedly…With the exception of AstraZeneca, none of the big pharma companies reporting second-quarter results have managed to achieve double-digit percentage...growth…
- CMS Suspends Torchmark Part D Plans For ‘Systemic’ Flaws (law360.com)Non-Immediate Suspension of Enrollment and Marketing (cms.gov)
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has suspended enrollment in two Medicare Part D plans sold by Torchmark Corp. because of "widespread and systemic" failures that contributed to the program's highest complaint rate,..."intermediate sanctions" that will result in suspension of enrollment and marketing activities …
- Medicare’s three-day rule may lead to longer-than-needed hospital stays (fiercehealthcare.com)
Medicare's rule that says patients must stay in the hospital for three days before it will cover their care in a skilled nursing facility may not be helping patients,…costing Medicare plans money… the average hospital length of stay decreased for patients whose plans eliminated the rule, while it increased for those that still applied the rule…
- VPP Online Application Launches, Offers Streamlined Process (nabp.net)
Verified Pharmacy Program processes,… new application will facilitate a more efficient application process for pharmacies… to make pharmacy licensure, inspection, and disciplinary action information available to the boards of pharmacy to support licensure decisions….can assist pharmacies, particularly those…in multiple states, by facilitating the sharing of verified pharmacy data and providing inspection services,…
- Cities eye more pot dispensary licenses (reviewjournal.com)
Medical marijuana dispensaries are still months away from opening in Southern Nevada and local government officials are already trying to get licenses for more of the expected big-money makers…each in line to collect…hundreds of thousands — of dollars in application, business and license fees…doesn't include the fees from medical pot growhouses, production facilities and testing centers, or the sums municipalities will get from each of those establishments in local property and state-administered sales taxes...
- American Association of Diabetes Educators calls for provider status (drugstorenews.com)
… American Association of Diabetes Educators called on Congress to pass…two…bills, H.R. 1726, and S. 1345, which are known as The Access To Quality Diabetes Education Act of 2015…would amend title XVIII of the Social Security Act to recognize credentialed diabetes educators as providers of diabetes education services, including tele-health services, under part B of the Medicare program.




