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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.

CGH Medical Center pharmacists say the system’s Med Card gives patients a better way to keep track of their medications – and say using the software has helped increase clinical knowledge...At CGH Medical Center in Sterling, Illinois, preventable readmissions represent a huge financial and clinical uncertainty...

• THE PROBLEM
• PROPOSAL
• MARKETPLACE
• MEETING THE CHALLENGE
• RESULTS

Pharmacists counseled more than 650 patients in the first eight months of the program at the 97-bed facility. They identified medication interventions in nearly half of all discharges. Depending on the intervention made, these changes had a major impact on patient safety and the cost of their medications...“While we haven’t been able to measure it yet, we are looking into how this program will impact our overall readmission rates and penalties, as well as HCAHPS scores,” said Tim Dunphy, director of pharmacy at CGH Medical Center...READ MORE

CVS Pharmacy has completed the rollout of time delay safes in all of its 318 CVS Pharmacy locations in Michigan, including pharmacies located in Target stores...The safes are anticipated to help prevent pharmacy robberies and the diversion of controlled substance narcotic medications by keeping them out of the hands of unauthorized individuals, as well as help the company ensure the safety and well-being of its customers and employees...The company expects these time delay safes to help deter pharmacy robberies including those involving opioid medications such as oxycodone and hydrocodone by electronically delaying the time it takes for pharmacy employees to be able to open the safe. CVS Pharmacy first implemented time delay safes in Indianapolis, a city experiencing at the time a high volume of pharmacy robberies, in 2015. The company saw a 70% decline in pharmacy robberies among the Indianapolis stores where the time delay safes had been installed...READ MORE

Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

As a new Idaho law allowing pharmacy technicians to prescribe naloxone takes effect, Albertsons announced that its Boise-area pharmacy technicians are the first in the state who have been trained to do so...The law, signed in February, makes Idaho the first state in the nation to add pharmacy technicians to the ranks of pharmacists, physicians and nurse practitioners in being able to prescribe the opioid overdose reversal drug. Idaho Gov. Brad Little also issued an executive order creating an advisory group in the state to guide healthcare decisions and strategies related to opioid misuse...“Idaho is leading other states in the steps we are taking to expand access to this critical medication and in our efforts to address the opioid crisis,” Little said. “Training pharmacy technicians and all health professionals to prescribe naloxone further reaches our underserved and rural communities. Albertsons has been a key partner in increasing the scope of practice for both pharmacists and technicians to continue improving access to beneficial and lifesaving medications.”...READ MORE

A self-declared “caravan” of Americans bused across the Canada-U.S. border...seeking affordable prices for insulin and raising awareness of “the insulin price crisis” in the United States...The group called Caravan to Canada started the journey from Minneapolis, Minnesota...and stopped at London, Ontario...to purchase life-saving type 1 diabetes medication at a pharmacy...The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported in May that Canadian pharmacists have seen a “quiet resurgence” in Americans coming to Canada looking for cheaper pharmaceuticals...Quinn Nystrom, a leader of T1International’s Minnesota chapter, said on May via Twitter that the price of insulin in the United States per vial was $320, while in Canada the same medication under a different name was $30...READ MORE

Diabetes care is providing a gateway for better interaction between pharmacists and patients...people with diabetes visit the retail pharmacy not only to have their prescriptions filled, but also to learn more about blood sugar levels, A1C testing and self-care... Pharmacists also have to face the challenges of keeping costs down, not just for the retailer, but for the patients as well...Manufacturers said many of the latest innovations can help. The product launches help make blood glucose testing easier, more comfortable and more affordable. As a result, patients can be encouraged to improve their self-care, and also reduce certain costs... Greater involvement in the patient’s health care can improve patient results and hopefully, in the process, buy greater loyalty to the pharmacy that they happen to be working with...There are more than a few pharmacy chains that hire pharmacists not to fill prescriptions, but to work on phones, do medication management, and, when they see an issue, they can call the patient or call the healthcare provider...READ MORE

• Needle innovations
• Beyond testing and injecting
• The future

Walgreens Boots Alliance is downsizing its U.K. retail footprint...The company is closing some 200 of its more than 2,500 Boots stores in the U.K., consolidating them with other Boots locations. The shutterings are part of Walgreens’ “global cost management transformation program,” which is expected to provide a good part of the funding required for its technology upgrades and development investments...In a statement, Boots UK managing director Sebastian James said the stores to be shuttered were local pharmacy stores in locations where the company has a large number of stores within close proximity...READ MORE

Samantha DiGrande, Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network

The deaths of 64 people and sickening of nearly 800 due to criminal negligence by employees of the New England Compounding Center in 2012 marked a profound failure of state and federal regulatory enforcement…led to…the Drug Quality and Security Act of 2013 provisions to create a more robust regulatory framework for compounding pharmacies…The legislation instructed the FDA to create regulations…that would assure patient safety while permitting local compounders to continue to meet patient needs by providing customized compounded medications using FDA-approved substances…But the FDA has overreached in implementing the provisions, all but halting common compounding practices that have been safely performed for years and on which patients with legitimate needs for compounded medications rely. Not only that, but the FDA has done so by circumventing the federal Administrative Procedure Act, issuing “guidance documents” to implement policies rather than following the statutory rule-making process that requires stakeholder input regarding proposed regulations…READ MORE