- AHA analysis touts community benefits made by 340B hospitals as spat with drugmakers continues (fiercehealthcare.com)In 2017 alone, 340B Tax-exempt Hospitals Provided More Than $64 Billion in Total Benefits to Their Communities (aha.org)
Safety net hospitals that participate in the 340B drug discount program generated $64.3 billion in total benefits to community programs and services tailored to help low-income patient populations, a new analysis finds...The analysis, published...from the American Hospital Association, comes as hospitals wage a war with drug companies that have begun restricting sales of discounted products to 340B contract pharmacies. AHA charges the 340B program enables safety net hospitals to help patients in vulnerable communities, but drug companies argue the program has gotten too large and hospitals are not helping patients with the savings...READ MORE
- Hospitals Continue Their Startling Expansion into Specialty Pharmacy (drugchannels.net)
Hospitals and health systems are building a major presence in the specialty pharmacy industry...nine out of ten large hospitals now operate a specialty pharmacy. Hospitals and other healthcare providers account for one-third of all U.S. accredited specialty pharmacies...Clinical and general financial motivations are driving hospitals’ DIY specialty pharmacy growth. The enormous profit opportunities from the 340B Drug Pricing Program offer further encouragement for hospitals. In-house specialty pharmacies are also a valuable hedge against the potential loss of contract pharmacies...READ MORE
- Rules on prescription drug prices in Georgia tightened in Kemp-signed bill (gwinnettdailypost.com)
Gov. Brian Kemp signed legislation...tightening rules on third-party companies that play a role in negotiating pharmaceutical drug prices between insurers and local pharmacies in Georgia...The bill...requires...pharmacy benefits managers to set drug prices within a national average, a move aimed at reining in excessively high prescription prices...Senate Bill 313...also forces PBMs to offer up full rebates to health plans that are typically given by drugmakers, rather than pocketing a portion...And PBMs will need to submit to new audits by the state Department of Community Health as well as requirements for publishing data on prescription prices online...READ MORE
- Pharmacy groups tell HHS that any action on rebate rule must involve fixing pharmacy DIR fees (chaindrugreview.com)
The country’s leading pharmacy groups said that any action on a prescription drug rebate rule must address skyrocketing fees extracted by pharmacy benefit managers on behalf of plan sponsors in Medicare Part D...“We remind the Administration of the continuous and heightened impact of pharmacy DIR fees imposed by Medicare Part D plan sponsors and their pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) on our members. Pharmacy DIR fees are growing beyond CMS’ projection of 10% year-over-year...“If pharmacy DIR fees are not addressed in a forthcoming rebate rule, the impact on our members and their ability to care for patients in such a system will prove detrimental...READ MORE
- NCPA Urges Investigation of Mail Order Prescription Plans After USPS Delays (drugtopics.com)
Soon after the House Energy and Commerce Committee launched an investigation into potential US Postal Service delivery delays for mail order medications, NCPA said in a letter that the committee should broaden its investigation to probe long-term problems with mail order prescription plans...“Policymakers should investigate the cost and safety of mail order prescriptions as well as the impacts of any delivery delays on drug safety and efficacy,” said Karry La Violette, NCPA senior vice president of government affairs, in a news release. “We’re confident they will find that in many cases there are better, more reliable options—namely, patients’ neighborhood pharmacies—to help improve outcomes, protect patient choice, and control costs.”...“NCPA questions the integrity of a drug distribution system that relies exclusively on the mail and in which drugs are dispensed in excessive volume, over long distances, often exposed to extreme temperatures or humidity, delayed, and otherwise compromised.,” La Violette said in the letter...READ MORE
- New patient safety report presents personal and professional challenges for pharmacists (fip.org)Patient safety: Pharmacists’ role in “Medication without harm” 2020 (fip.org)
The positive impacts of pharmacists in supporting medication without harm are described in a new publication from FIP released today. FIP’s new reference document, entitled “Patient safety — Pharmacists’ role in ‘Medication without harm’”, provides information about what pharmacists can do to promote patient safety at an individual patient level, as well as at organisational and policy development levels...READ MORE
- New Hampshire Passes Bill Allowing Pharmacist-Provided COVID-19 Vaccinations (drugtopics.com)
The state joins New York and Minnesota in providing COVID-19 vaccination access through pharmacy...New Hampshire has passed into law authorization for pharmacists to administer vaccinations for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2)...once it becomes available...READ MORE
- Narcan must become as commonplace as CPR (thehill.com)Emergent steps to the plate with Major League Baseball and virtual experience for opioid overdose awareness (fiercepharma.com)
While the world continues to navigate the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, our other epidemic hasn’t gone away: The rate of opioid overdoses, already a national nightmare, has accelerated since the onset of COVID-19...It’s time to end this continuing tragedy. One of the ways to do this is by making naloxone...a safe, effective and use-specific antidote to opioid overdose — as common among bystanders as CPR...Narcan can be purchased in its generic or branded forms by anyone, without a prescription, at any participating pharmacy...In order to stem our national overdose epidemic, Narcan must be omnipresent in our public places, in our workplaces and schools, and in our homes...Years ago, CPR became a public health imperative. CPR became common after the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association and other major national organizations assumed the task of training. In today’s world, Narcan needs to have similar importance...As we observe International Overdose Awareness Day, it’s time to establish a new public health priority. Surgeon General Jerome Adams, in the first Surgeon General advisory of its kind in the past 15 years, is urging every American to carry Narcan, and be trained to administer it...READ MORE
- Government Creates the High Drug Costs It Then Seeks to Fix (breitbart.com)
As President Trump wrestles with trying to rein in the high cost of medicine in the United States, he is contemplating an executive order and a proposed rule from the Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services that would set Medicare Part B prescription drug costs based on an International Pricing Index (IPI). The problem is that the IPI includes countries that utilize socialized medicine and artificial price controls. Here, President Trump is mistakenly focused upon the symptom rather than the cause of the problem. The symptom is the cost, the cause is the incredible barriers to approval and pernicious middle-men known as Pharmacy Benefit Managers which make medicines more expensive...READ MORE
- Appeals court upholds nearly 30% payment cut to 340B hospitals (fiercehealthcare.com)
A federal appeals court has ruled the Trump administration can install nearly 30% cuts to the 340B drug discount program...The ruling...is the latest legal setback for hospitals that have been vociferously fighting cuts the Department of Health and Human Services announced back in 2017...340B requires pharmaceutical manufacturers to deliver discounts to safety net hospitals in exchange for participation in Medicaid. A hospital will pay typically between 20% and 50% below the average sales price for the covered drugs...HHS sought to address a payment gap between 340B and Medicare Part B, which reimburses providers for drugs administered in a physician's office such as chemotherapy. There was a 25% and 55% gap between the price for a 340B drug and on Medicare Part B...So HHS administered a 28.5% cut in the 2018 hospital payment rule. The agency also included the cuts in the 2019 payment rule...Three hospital groups sued to stop the cut, arguing that HHS exceeded its federal authority to adjust the rates to the program...READ MORE