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Gianna Melillo, welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

The National Community Pharmacists Association is highlighting pharmacists' expanding role in health care to the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services...NCPA is urging CMS to enhance coverage of pharmacist-provided care services and reevaluate strict supervision requirements, as well as coverage policies for incident-to services...In response to President Trump’s Executive Order #13890 on Protecting and Improving Medicare for Our Nation’s Seniors...In addition to emphasizing that pharmacists improve patient care and outcomes when collaborating with health care professionals, NCPA argues in its comments that restrictive regulations currently hinder pharmacists’ ability to continue providing this care at the federal level, especially when state laws are already expanding to allow health care practitioners to contribute fully to patient care...READ MORE

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

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

Amazon has filed to trademark “Amazon Pharmacy” in Canada, the U.K. and Australia, signaling a potential move into selling prescription drugs outside of the U.S...The ‘Amazon Pharmacy’ branding is relatively new...Filing a trademark doesn’t necessarily mean that international expansion is imminent. But it does suggest Amazon will eventually go global, which is in line with its typical business strategy, and this first crop of trademark filings might signal which countries the company is likely to explore next...READ MORE

For 2020, the two largest pharmacy benefit managers —Express Scripts and the Caremark business of CVS Health—have again increased the number of drugs they have excluded from their standard formularies. The 2020 formulary exclusion lists are available below for your downloading pleasure...key takeaways from the 2020 lists:

1. The biggest PBMs have expanded exclusions.
2. PBMs are refining their formulary management of crucial specialty categories.
3. Indication-based formularies for inflammatory conditions are now routine.
4. PBMs are slowly adopting provider-administered biosimilars on their pharmacy benefit formularies.
5. Express Scripts and CVS Caremark both made patient-unfriendly exclusions in the Hepatitis C category...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.

Quality, speed, and price has been referred to as the "Unattainable Triangle". Fast, good, cheap—pick 2. Every business faces this question every time the doors are open for business. You can’t possibly have all 3. When you try to improve 1 side of the triangle, the other 2 sides will be impacted...think about our individual struggle with the triangle. How many of us are in low quality, high stressed jobs because of our “price” (salary)? In a fulfilling pharmacist career, the focus is always on quality...READ MORE

Members of the former International Academy of Compounding Pharmacists voted in November 2019 to change the association’s name to the Alliance for Pharmacy Compounding (APC). As of January 1, 2020, the new name has become official...The APC is an advocate on a number of issues related to patient access to compounded medications, including: encouraging national academies and chapters to seek input from prescribers, and dispensers of compounded bioidentical hormone replacement therapy; appealing beyond-use date restrictions in the new USP <795> and <797> chapters; and proposing a “middle way” to the FDA on a memorandum of understanding regarding state level regulation of patient-specific compounded medications...READ MORE

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case brought by Arkansas Attorney General Leslie Rutledge against the pharmacy benefit management (PBM) industry…PBMs act as middlemen between health insurance companies and pharmacies...pharmacies have complained that PBMs have been reimbursing them below their cost to acquire a drug...U.S. Solicitor General Noel Francisco recommended Dec. 5 that the Arkansas case – Rutledge v. Pharmaceutical Care Management Association...be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. Rutledge has argued that more than 16% of rural pharmacies closed in recent years due to declining PBM payments on generic prescriptions causing Arkansans to be unable to receive necessary medications...READ MORE