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Pharmacy students at Roseman University are volunteering to help Nevada’s Medicare population learn more about their insurance coverage, and a new grant is expected to boost their efforts...The students, who have been trained through the Nevada State Health Insurance Assistance Program, operate the school’s Medicare Call Lab, answering questions from Medicare participants and their families about insurance plans, prescription coverage and possible state and federal assistance eligibility...A $50,000 award through grant competition NobleCause will be distributed this month, allowing the lab to purchase tablets, dividers to separate students’ workstations and dual headsets to speed up training. It’ll also fund contract work with SHIP to have those counselors work more with students...Every call is a new experience because everybody has different issues, and they have different problems...Roseman’s Medicare Call Lab can be reached at 702-968-6615 or by email at medicare@roseman.edu.

A small mail-order pharmacy, which ships presorted packets of medicines to its customers, is waging a David-versus-Goliath battle with Express Scripts, the nation’s largest pharmacy benefits manager...PillPack has been part of the Express Scripts network of pharmacies...Recently...Express Scripts decided to cancel its contract with PillPack...PillPack chief executive, claims that Express Scripts is making this move because the company doesn’t want another mail-order pharmacy in its network to compete with its own mail order business...Express Scripts spokesman said the dispute with PillPack is purely about contract requirements...PillPack is "innovative and could be in our network, but hasn’t followed the rules and regulations." He argued that PillPack ships medicines to some states where it doesn’t have a pharmacy license; declared itself to be a retail pharmacy when it primarily does mail order business; and isn’t accredited by a national health care organization...PillPack is licensed across the continental United States, although it did encounter administrative problems in one state that have since been corrected...Express Scripts spokesman maintained that "we don’t see them as a threat. "We see them more as a collaborator especially in terms of patient adherence. But they have to follow the rules,"...

Canadian Pharmacists Association...called for pharmacists be on the front lines of patient management and dispensing of medical marijuana...Pharmacists are medication experts and play a critical role in the management and monitoring of medication to ensure safe and optimal use...it is patient safety that is ultimately at the heart of CPhA's decision to update its position on the role of pharmacists in the management and dispensing of medical marijuana...(the) announcement marks a reversal for the organization, which opposed pharmacist distribution over lack of evidence of efficacy and concern over potential robberies…CPhA said its evolution on the issue was informed by three factors:

1. concern from members over the impact lack of proper clinical oversight for using medical marijuana could have on patients;
2. the findings of an independent report from KPMG that found pharmacist dispensation and management was the best option for patient safety and access;
3. the results of a CphA-commissioned...survey in which 73% of respondents...agreed that medical marijuana should be treated like other medicines and only be available through a pharmacy.

A tussle between a Texas compounder and the Food and Drug Administration underscores the ongoing difficulties that regulators can have overseeing this controversial portion of the medical supply chain...The episode also illustrates how varying approaches taken by state and federal authorities to regulating compounding pharmacies can leave doctors and patients confused about the safety of medicines...the FDA issued a health alert recommending that doctors and patients should toss sterile medicines made by IV Specialty. The agency found numerous safety issues during an inspection...the compounder refused an agency recommendation to halt production or issue a recall until the problems were fixed...The FDA...lacks authority to force the compounder to take these steps...In response to the FDA actions, the state agency (Texas State Board of Pharmacy) sent its own inspector to review IV Specialty facilities...According to our rules, they’re doing what they need to do. We didn’t see anything that we felt would prompt us to immediately close them down...state regulations are not as stringent as FDA regulations..."We’re still in the early stages of figuring out how state and federal regulation schemes are going to work," said Elizabeth Jungman, director of public health programs at Pew Charitable Trusts, which tracks compounding issues. "So it’s confusing for patients and physicians to see disagreement between regulators at state and federal levels."

Mike Glaicar, Business Development: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN) This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Co-Host Blair Green Thielemier, PharmD returns to the Pharmacy Podcast with a dynamic interview with Medication Therapy Management Pharmacist Nicole Rosenke about the Pharmapreneur Academy and building an MTM Business. (podcast 31:49 min)

Benzer Pharmacy...launched its new website for pet medications, BenzerPetMed.com. Benzer pharmacist JiYang Chung said that compounded pet medication has become an ideal treatment for such acute and chronic conditions in pets as rashes, ear infections, wound care and diabetes...Benzer Pet Pharmacy will formulate pharmaceutical-grade ingredients into tailored medications for pet’s specific needs…The website will offer such services as home deliveries, online ordering, refill reminders, custom compounded medication and free medication flavoring...

Even as overall spending on prescription medicines in the United States rose 8.5 percent last year, prices for brand-name drugs rose just 2.8 percent, which represents a steady decline from recent years...By way of comparison, brand-name drug prices rose 9.1 percent in 2012 and continued to rise over the past two years, although at a slower pace — 5.1 percent in 2014 and 4.9 percent in 2013...We’re seeing a significant slowdown in price growth on a net basis...the trend suggests that payers — pharmacy benefits managers and insurers — are having some success pushing back against rising prices, an issue that has caused national outrage and placed the pharmaceutical industry on the defensive...spending on specialty medicines — a fast-growing category that includes treatments for hepatitis C, oncology, and autoimmune diseases — doubled over the past five years. These medicines accounted for 70 percent of the overall increase in spending between 2010 and 2015...Demand was higher for therapies such as those for treating depression and diabetes, which registered about 10 percent increases, while there was a nearly 17 percent drop in the number of narcotic prescriptions dispensed.

Centers for Medicare and Medicare Services is reportedly proposing to ban Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes from owning or operating a laboratory for two years, along with revoking the license of Theranos' Newark, CA lab...Theranos had ten calendar days from receiving the notice to explain to CMS why the sanctions should not be imposed on Holmes and the company...The proposed sanctions stem from a number of key deficiencies CMS found in inspections last fall. Theranos had sent in a correction plan for the deficiencies but the regulator found it to be not credible.

Armada Health Care announced...that it would be launching a new brand identity and company name change to Asembia. With the new name, Asembia plans to continue expanding on its specialty pharmaceutical offerings, including solutions for pharmacies, pharmaceutical and biotech companies and payers...We are a very different company from when we first started more than a decade ago. In this regard, we are excited to announce our new corporate identity which we feel better reflects our broad array of capabilities and service offerings, each of which are developed collaboratively with our member pharmacy and manufacturer...