Category:

A former pharmacist in Wisconsin who intentionally tampered with more than 500 doses of a COVID-19 vaccine was sentenced to three years in prison on Tuesday. Steven Brandenburg, 46, pleaded guilty in February to two felony counts of attempting to tamper with a consumer product...He had admitted to intentionally removing the doses manufactured by Moderna from a refrigerator for hours at Aurora Medical Center in Grafton, located just north of Milwaukee...READ MORE

Eli Lilly is asking a federal court to stop the federal government from imposing any penalties over its decision to restrict sales of 340B-discounted products to contract pharmacies...The request for a preliminary injunction and temporary restraining order...comes less than a week after the Health Resources and Services Administration wrote to Lilly and five other drug companies over the contract pharmacy restrictions...The injunction and order show that drug companies appear likely to fight HRSA’s order to immediately offer 340B-discounted drugs to contract pharmacies, which are third-party entities that dispense drugs on behalf of the 340B covered entities...READ MORE

CVS Health is expanding its program to offer no-cost, community-based screenings to 14 more markets...Project Health, which is now in its sixteenth year, offers a slew of free biometric screenings at CVS Pharmacy locations, including blood pressure, glucose levels and cholesterol. Patients can then meet with a nurse practitioner, who can provide additional guidance and referrals for treatment if needed...The program is also launching four new mobile units, CVS said, and anticipates providing 1,700 screening events across its 32 markets by the end of the year...READ MORE

A new legislation recently passed by the Michigan’s House of Representatives would require reforms to many pharmacy benefit manager reimbursement practices in the state...The provisions listed in HB 4348 would prohibit PBMs from reimbursing pharmacies affiliated with the PBM more than non-affiliate pharmacies; prohibit patient steering to PBM-owned pharmacies; prohibit retroactive clawbacks; require reimbursement be based on the National Average Drug Acquisition Cost; and establish fair audit procedures for community pharmacies...READ MORE

UNLV will launch a program this fall that allows students to earn both a medical doctor and master of business administration degree in five years...The university will join about half of the nation’s MD-granting medical schools — including University of Nevada, Reno — that already offer a similar dual degree program...For leadership roles in medicine — particularly, in hospital leadership — a master of business administration (MBA) or equivalent degree is often recommended or required...READ MORE

Lawmakers behind the Improving Seniors’ Timely Access to Care Act...not only requires electronic prior authorization for MA plans, but also requires the Department of Health and Human Services to create a process for faster decisions on items and services that commonly get approved...While the bill only applies to MA plans, lawmakers hope to eventually tackle more types of insurance such as commercial plans...READ MORE

Two U.S. representatives, G.K. Butterfield and David McKinley introduced the Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Area Enhancement Act, which would provide reimbursement to pharmacists who deliver Medicare Part B services that are already authorized by their respective state laws...“Under this bill, Medicare will pay pharmacists at 85% of the Physician Fee Schedule,” explained Tom Kraus, the vice president of government relations at ASHP. “This is an important step to improve access to care for Medicare beneficiaries and helps ensure that serving these patients will be financially sustainable.”...READ MORE

In reality, nearly half (44%) of hospital pharmacists experienced a diversion event within the past 12 months, which is up from 37% in 2019. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this “hidden epidemic,” a multi-faceted challenge which poses serious risks to patients, clinicians and healthcare systems...Here are 5 questions frequently asked by health systems seeking to accelerate and improve their efforts to detect and mitigate drug diversion incidents...READ MORE

1. What are the biggest challenges in identifying drug diversion?
2. How have responsibilities for addressing and resolving drug diversion issues evolved?
3. What offers the biggest opportunity to improve diversion identification?
4. When selecting automated systems and software, which capabilities are most critical?
5. How do you justify the cost of technology in a difficult economic environment?

One day, my wife Denise and I went to our local bank with a plastic card and put it in the machine. We had the option of withdrawing either $25 or $50 out of our checking account. The money dropped down in an envelope with the cash inside. This was amazing technology for 1981. I then went to work and pulled out the Smith Corona typewriter and started typing prescription labels...Yesterday, I went to our warehouse club and pulled up to the gas pumps. I took out my phone and waved it at the QR code on the screen. I began pumping my gas without ever getting my wallet out of my pocket. I checked my email and saw I had spent $28.54 on pump #4 at 7:46 am...When I stand in front of my pharmacy computer for 10 hours at a time, I often wonder why this technology seems so far behind the other technology I use daily. If we want to move this profession toward more patient-centric care, we must have the tools to do that. All I ask is that my pharmacy computer have the same technology as my gas pump...READ MORE

Hospitals and health system pharmacists are urging the Biden administration to review insurer "white bagging" policies...Payers use white bagging to dispense drugs to hospitals, requiring these medications come from select network specialty pharmacies. AHA and ASHP said in the letter that doing so circumvents hospital supply chain protocols aimed at patient safety..."White bagging has surged in frequency over the past decade, creating what amounts to a shadow inventory that hospitals and health systems do not legally own and which exists largely outside of the DSCSA’s track and trace requirements,"...READ MORE