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National Association of Specialty Pharmacy (NASP) Executive Director James E. Smeeding, RPh, MBA, discusses the relationship between specialty pharmacies and accountable care organizations.

LinkedIn's professional social network appeals to business people, networkers and recruiters, but also to industries that tend to be more cautious on social media. Welcome, pharma...Healthcare, overall, and pharma is definitely on the developmental side of the LinkedIn spectrum...from an advertising perspective...But over the past three years, we've seen a huge growth in having these companies consider LinkedIn as a channel...Many drugmakers have taken a first step, usually by setting up a company page where drugmakers can build up followers and create an audience with employees, colleagues and associates. But pharmas are increasingly using LinkedIn for paid sponsorships and advertising. Sponsored updates and InMail campaigns are beginning to move from testing to a repeat marketing strategy among pharmas...InMail, in which sponsored messages are sent directly to targeted LinkedIn members inboxes, tends to be "safe" for pharma because email bypasses any open comment possibilities...I think there are a lot of opportunities for pharma companies to be the leader and the innovator across their competitive set...Professionals on LinkedIn are connected to peers, colleagues and managers so the platform allows for that much more engagement. You're not hiding behind a handle or showing pictures of family, this is your professional brand...

...the SafeMed program, which uses certified pharmacy technicians in a novel expanded role as community health workers (CPhT-CHWs) to improve transitions of care...The SafeMed experience demonstrates that...CPhT-CHWs are well suited for novel expanded roles to improve care transitions...can play a key role in care transition programs targeting superutilizing patients with complex medical and social needs. As CMS intensifies readmission penalties and providers bearing financial risk seek to reduce overall health care costs, low-cost CPhT-CHWs serving as pharmacist extenders may become an increasingly attractive component for health systems...CPhT-CHWs can assist with identification and reporting of potential DTPs identified during home visits and telephone follow-up and can coordinate with pharmacists in real time to enable patients to get targeted MTM when and where they need it. They can also assist pharmacists in scheduling outpatient CMRs and support sessions for the patients...In collaboration with state pharmacy boards, pharmacist associations, and regional community colleges, the SafeMed model can be successfully scaled to serve superutilizing patients in readmission hotspots throughout the country.

Last week, the Department of Health Care Services announced the addition of a number of adult vaccines to the Medi-Cal fee-for-service outpatient drug benefit. This means that Medi-Cal beneficiaries in the statewide fee-for-service network can now receive coverage for adult immunizations when administered in a pharmacy. Newly added vaccines include those for Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, HPV, MMR, and more. Coverage does contain vaccine-specific restrictions...CPhA (California Pharmacist Association) applauds this coverage change to improve patient access to pharmacists' services. "We are excited to see momentum in many areas of SB 493 implementation, including expanded immunizations," said CPhA President Sarah McBane, PharmD. "As more of SB 493's authorities gain recognition by Medi-Cal and other payers, pharmacists stand ready to assist our patients."

Drugmakers, long reliant on using DTC ads to drive patients into doctor's offices, should rethink that strategy...The marketing model used to be big and bold out of the gate on day one...the industry is starting to challenge that model...The consumerization of healthcare is king, not the consumer...if a patient today requests a new drug or tries to refill an old one, that request may face more resistance from physicians with differing views about a specific medication or from payers that give certain medications preferred status on their formularies than it would have in the past...This raises questions about the effectiveness of traditional branded pharmaceutical advertising campaigns, which perform best in a market where the drug is broadly available...About 47% of Americans ask their doctor questions about a drug, while 30% ask the pharmacist. Nearly half of respondents—43%—say that their pharmacist always or frequently recommends an alternative brand or type of medication in order to reduce out-of-pocket costs...The role of the pharmacist in a formulary driven world is becoming far more dominant...The pharmacist is becoming as good a choice for health counsel...Marketers are seeing a need to better communicate with the pharmacist...

Declines in the value of the Egyptian pound coupled with a shortage of foreign exchange have made it harder for Egyptian pharmaceutical companies to import active ingredients they need to make generic medicines millions of poor Egyptians rely on...Though medicines are classed as essential goods, putting them high on the priority list at banks deciding how to allocate precious dollar rations, pharmaceutical companies say they still face serious problems that force them to slow or pause production...A weaker currency has also made it more expensive to import raw materials while the price of finished medicines is fixed by the Health Ministry, forcing manufacturers to stop making some cheap generic medicines to staunch growing financial losses...

The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the American Pharmacists Association recently agreed on a new archetype for PGY1 Community-based Pharmacy Residency Programs...ASHP and APhA collaborated to prepare the guidelines, which has been the practice since the two agencies partnered up in 1999. The partnership was formed to accredit community-based residency training programs...The new model mirrors current trends regarding how today’s pharmacies are conducting business...The Community-based Pharmacy Residency Accreditation Taskforce that is responsible for the augmentation of the standards will continue its work on associated Competencies, Goals and Objectives as well as the document as a whole. All of these documents will be released this year. Mandatory execution of the new guidelines is expected by July 2017.

Walgreens...announced the launch of a new effort to combat drug abuse, introducing two programs that address contributors to the crisis.

1. ...Walgreens will install safe medication disposal kiosks in more than 500 drug stores in 39 states and Washington, D.C., primarily at locations open 24 hours. The program will make the disposal of medications — including opioids and other controlled substances — easier and more convenient while helping to reduce the misuse of medications and the rise in overdose deaths.
2. Walgreens also will make naloxone...available without a prescription at its pharmacies in 35 states and Washington, D.C., rolling out the program state-by-state throughout this year.

Thirty-three community pharmacies have taken part in North America’s first research project that ultimately aims to bring the science of pharmacogenomics to patients using their community pharmacy. Pharmacogenomics uses a person’s genetics to uncover which drugs and in what dosage work best for them...The project, called "Genomics for Precision Drug Therapy in the Community Pharmacy", was funded by the BC Pharmacy Association and Genome British Columbia with research being done by a team at the University of British Columbia’s Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences...he project set out to position the pharmacist as the health-care provider through which patient genetic information can be acquired, assessed and used to guide drug therapy decisions...This is where the future of pharmacy is heading...We showed that pharmacy can be the gateway to personalized medication in our communities...Regardless of the location – urban or rural – patients had a consistent, quality experience with their community pharmacist as it relates to pharmacogenomics....

Congratulations to our pharmacist colleagues in Ohio! Under a new bill that was recently signed into law, Ohio pharmacists will now have more responsibility and fewer restrictions in collaborative practice...HB 188 provides new consult agreement provisions that allow Ohio pharmacists to order blood and urine tests, analyze the results of those tests, and modify a patient’s drug therapy regimen. The law also allows pharmacists to order medication refills in a small amount for patients with life-threatening illnesses when a physician can’t be reached. It will also streamline consult agreement paperwork so that multiple pharmacists can have a collaborative agreement with multiple physicians to oversee medications for multiple patients...This is a huge win for pharmacists in Ohio and is an excellent example of how collaboration among pharmacists, physicians, patients, and legislators can expand our scope of practice...