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Christina Mattina, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Traditional drug store chains are feeling the pressure from new digital players such as Amazon and e-pharmacy startups like Capsule and NowRx...As competition from digital rivals continues to grow, CVS and Walgreens are embracing retail healthcare and expanding their healthcare offerings by adding value-based care and outpatient services…READ MORE

Here are three things the drug chains are doing to compete with digital rivals:

• In-store health services
• Prescription drug delivery
• Possible privatization

Matthew Gavidia, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

Safety net providers are pushing back on the growing use of “2-tiered” policies among payers and pharmacy benefit managers under the 340B Drug Pricing Program that provide lower reimbursement rates for 340B-covered entities compared with non-340B entities...The practice has been challenged in court, finding its way to state legislatures through safety net providers who argue the practice is impacting their ability to serve more patients and offer comprehensive services…HHS has declined to intervene on the issue of 2-tier pricing under the 340B program, with both the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Health Resources and Services Administration suggesting that they do not have authority to regulate this practice...READ MORE

Nicole Grassano, PTNN, Pharmacy Week in Review, this weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Tedder (Ryan Tedder ) confirmed...he teamed up to buy the Walgreens building across from Park MGM, and that his investors on the deal included DJ duo the Chainsmokers...The $38 million sale by Walgreen Co., which bought the building in June from its former landlord for $30 million and flipped it, closed last month, property records show...Drugstores on tourist-choked Las Vegas Boulevard are big business, commanding outsize rents, strong retail sales and, as the recent purchase shows, high property values...Illinois-based Walgreen Co. had listed its 15,000-square-foot building on Las Vegas Boulevard between Tropicana and Harmon avenues for $40 million...READ MORE

Nicole Grassano, PTNN, Pharmacy Week in Review, this weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

Walgreens has agreed to pay $7.5 million to settle a consumer protection lawsuit brought by California authorities who said the company employed an unlicensed pharmacist for more than a decade...The action is in response to a complaint filed by the district attorneys of Alameda and Santa Clara counties that alleges Kim Thien Le worked as a pharmacist in multiple Walgreens locations in the Bay Area for more than 10 years though she was not licensed by the Board of Pharmacy...While working as a pharmacist, Le participated in filling more than 745,000 prescriptions, including more than 100,000 for controlled substances,..READ MORE

Providers are making an increasing number of mistakes selecting the wrong medication for patients on their computer screens or tablets, according to the Institute for Safe Medication Practices ...The problem is that physicians and other providers select the wrong medication after entering the first few letters of the drug name into their technology screens, said the institute, which released its list of the top 10 most persistent medication errors and hazards it uncovered in 2019...READ MORE

One hundred forty four prescriptions filled in 7 days. That seems like a slow week at Novant Health Brunswick Medical Center. But those were the outpatient prescriptions, which the hospital doesn’t dispense normally...The hospital in Bolivia, North Carolina, was hit hard by Hurricane Florence for 7 days in September 2018. Twenty-three inches of rain in Bolivia--and as much as 27 inches of rain in nearby Sunny Point--led to flooding and impassable roads...Pre-Hurricane Florence, Perry Allen, PharmD, pharmacy manager, a 26-year veteran at the hospital, had 2 priorities: Have the right team on scene before, during, and after the storm and secure the necessary medications to ride out the storm...On behalf of the hospital’s pharmacy team, Allen received the 2019 American Society of Health-System Pharmacists CEO’s Award for Courageous Service...READ MORE