Category:

Justin Gallagher, associate publisher of The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care, From the Managed Markets News Network.

The pharmacy technicians on your staff play a pivotal role in the daily activities of the pharmacy, so make sure that they also have a prominent place in your Pharmacy Week (October 16-22) observance — and make a point to recognize their work on National Pharmacy Technician Day.

Pharmacists are an integral member of the immunization neighborhood and have positioned immunization services as an important patient care offering—a natural fit given the profession’s focus on improving the health outcomes of their patients and communities...To facilitate consistency in the process of serving patients within the context of comprehensive care, the Joint Commission of Pharmacy Practitioners in 2014 released the Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process. The process is applicable to any practice setting and for any patient care service that pharmacists provide. A new resource being released this fall will provide guidelines on how to build immunizations into this model...Applying the PPCP to immunization services is aimed at adapting the PPCP’s general model—collecting, assessing, planning, implementing, and following up through monitoring and evaluation—to fit immunization practice...We hope that the guide will 1) provide pharmacists with a systematic way of thinking about the immunization process; 2) create a quick reference tool with links and forms for pharmacists to reference during the immunization process; and 3) [serve as] a reference tool for other providers, payers, and public health to understand what to expect from a pharmacy-based immunization encounter...

While much of the attention over prescription drug prices is focused on consumers, a survey released on Tuesday finds that hospitals are also spending much more than in the past. Between 2013 and 2015, the average annual drug spending for patients who stay in community hospitals increased by of 23.4 percent...And on a per admission basis, hospital spending on drugs jumped nearly 39 percent, to $990...the increase in prices outpaced reimbursement rates from payers, retail spending on medicines, and the pharmaceutical price inflation...the survey found that more than 90 percent of the hospitals surveyed reported that recent price hikes for inpatient drugs had a moderate or severe effect on managing costs...The furor has put the pharmaceutical industry on the defensive as many drug makers are scrambling to justify their price hikes. Some drug makers are pointing fingers at pharmacy benefits managers, and the convoluted pricing system in which rebates that are paid to win coveted placement on lists of drugs for which insurance coverage is provided...The drugs that are increasing in price generally are not new and are off patent. There is no competition, so hospitals are forced to pay in order to make the best patient care decisions...These price increases are unsustainable for hospitals who are taking care of sicker and sicker patients…

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

Justin Gallagher, associate publisher of The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care, From the Managed Markets News Network...the top stories in managed care included HHS releasing the final rule for the Medicare Access and CHIP Reauthorization Act, a commentary on the downside of drug coupons, and the World Health Organization called on countries to enact a soda tax.

• Nugget Casino Resort, Sparks, NV  08:00 AM – 04: 00 PM
• Registration and Breakfast
• President’s Address and Awards
• CE Session 1: ASHP Update: Current Issues in Pharmacy Practice, Kimberlee Berry,
  CAE, Senior Manager, Affiliates Relations Division at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists
• CE Session 2: “When to Step In: Podiatry 101” by Tim Mooney, DPM, FACFAS,
  DABFAS
• Pharmacy Technicians’ Program 1: PTCB
• Lunch and Exhibition Showcase
• CE Session 3: When Less is More: Adventures in Deprescribing by Danielle Finn,
  PharmD and Sara Schroedl, PharmD, Pharmacists at the Sierra Nevada VA Health System
• Pharmacy Technicians’ Program 2: Pharmacy Law with Detective Michael Salerno
• CE Session 4: Updates in RA by Stephen Lee, PharmD, BCPS, Associate Professor of
  Pharmacy Practice at Roseman University of Health Sciences
• Closing Remarks

...a group of state health policy makers is offering some novel — and also some familiar — suggestions...These include regulating the pharmaceutical industry as a utility, allowing states to operate as pharmacy benefit managers and waiving some provisions of the Medicaid program...the National Academy for State Health Policy also recommends that states pursue laws that require more transparency from drug makers. And the organization floated some timeworn proposals, such as importing medicines from Canada and prosecuting drug makers for violating consumer protection laws that protect against predatory pricing monopolies..."The proposals in this paper require more dialogue, debate, development, and experimentation. These policy proposals may not be appropriate for all states or agencies, nor for every pharmaceutical product," the working group wrote. "But states need to act and this paper presents a toolbox of options to consider."... the Pharmaceutical Research & Manufacturers of America, the industry trade group. A spokeswoman wrote us to say that "many of the solutions proposed by the Work Group would harm patients and limit their access to life-saving treatments. We hope to begin a dialogue with the National Academy for State Health Policy on solutions that will help states better manage and predict costs while preserving patient access...

• Fatigue and Your Practice
• Roseman University Opens Medicare Call Lab in Partnership With the Nevada State Health Insurance Assistance Program
• Gentle Reminder for New Electronic Prescriptions
• National Vaccine Safety Surveillance Program Available for Reporting Adverse Events
• Improper and Unsafe Vaccine Storage
• Coalition Reports Impact of Educational Efforts on Safe Acetaminophen Use
• FDA Offers Webinars on Online Drug Information Resources for Students and Clinicians
• Fresenius Kabi Recalls Sensorcaine-MPF(Bupivacaine HCl) Injection, USP
• Oral Liquid Docusate Sodium by PharmaTech Recalled Due to Contamination
• NABP Seeks Pharmacists From Districts 1, 5,and 7 to Serve as Volunteer Item Writers
• Auditing Dispensers’ PMP Data

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores, in partnership with the Pharmacy Society of Wisconsin...announced plans to move forward with a new practice model to improve patient access to quality and efficient care, and advance pharmacy in a broader healthcare setting...The pilot project, "Advancing Community Pharmacy Quality: Leveraging Tech-Check-Tech to Expand Patient Care Services in Community Pharmacies," aims to promote better access to patient care. Specifically, the pilot will examine a new practice model that fosters collaboration across healthcare settings and employs an enhanced operational model. This new practice model holds promise in transforming the nation's healthcare system to deliver better access to clinical care by leveraging health care resources in a smarter way while ensuring patient safety and high operating standards...A key component of this model involves trained and validated pharmacy technicians completing the final check of a prescription filled by another technician, a pharmacy technician verification process known as tech-check-tech. This process allows pharmacists to reinvest the time saved by providing direct patient care services such as immunizations, disease state testing and medication therapy management, among others, which has a positive impact on overall patient outcomes...