- This Week in Managed Care: January 25, 2019 (ajmc.com)
Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- January 18 Pharmacy Week in Review: Influenza Data Finds More Than 6 Million People Sick This Season, and Walmart Ends a Partnership With CVS (pharmacytimes.com)
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.
- This Week in Managed Care: January 11, 2019 (ajmc.com)
Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- Rite Aid warned of risk of delisting from NYSE as shares fall below $1 (cnbc.com)
Rite Aid is at risk of being delisted from the New York Stock Exchange and considering a reverse stock split to prop its share price above $1 to comply with the exchange's trading rules...Shares of the drugstore chain have fallen 64 percent over the past year, down to 75 cents a share as of Thursday's close from $2.11 on Jan. 3, 2018 (2019). Rite Aid's stock has hovered under $1 per share over the past month, breaking the NYSE's rule. The exchange notified Rite Aid on Thursday that its average share price was too low and placed its stock at risk of delisting...Rite Aid has six months from the Jan. 3 notice to boost its average share price above $1 for a month.
- Walgreens pays $269.2 million to settle U.S. civil fraud lawsuits (reuters.com)
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc will pay $269.2 million to settle two whistleblower lawsuits accusing it of civil fraud for overbilling federal healthcare programs over a decade, the U.S. Department of Justice said...The pharmacy chain will pay $209.2 million to resolve claims it improperly billed Medicare, Medicaid and other federal programs from 2006 to 2017 for hundreds of thousands of insulin pens it dispensed to patients it knew did not need them...Walgreens will also pay $60 million to resolve claims it overcharged Medicaid from 2008 to 2017 by failing to disclose and charge the discount drug prices it offered the public through its Prescription Savings Club program...Two pharmacists filed the original complaint concerning the insulin pens in July 2015. A copy of that complaint could not immediately be obtained on Tuesday...Marc Baker, who worked for Walgreens for a decade as a pharmacy manager in Florida, filed the original complaint concerning the drug price discounts in January 2012.
- Independent Pharmacy Economics Keep Deteriorating (drugchannels.net)
Time for Drug Channels’annual look at independent pharmacy owners’ business economics, drawn from the recently released 2018 National Community Pharmacists Association Digest...Our analysis reveals that independent pharmacy owners have faced another year of deteriorating finances ...What's more, we estimate that in 2017, the average pharmacy owner’s salary fell to a level comparable to that of an employed pharmacist. Owning a pharmacy, with all of its hassles and additional obligations, now brings the same reward as being an employee. I wonder how many owners will conclude that it’s barely worth the risk and effort...The pharmacy consolidation endgame is getting closer...
OBSERVATIONS ON THE 2017 DATA
1) Overall independent pharmacy profit margins continue to decline.
2) Independent pharmacies’ prescription profit margins also keep trending downward.
3) Independent pharmacies’ generic dispensing rates have caught up to those of the overall market.
4) The average pharmacist owning a single pharmacy earned about $136,000 in 2017—down for the fourth consecutive year.
5) By the NCPA's count, the total number of independent pharmacies is slowly declining.
- January 11 Pharmacy Week in Review: Vecuronium Bromide Recall, and New App for OUD Treatment (pharmacytimes.com)
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.
- This Week in Managed Care: January 18, 2019 (ajmc.com)
Laura Joszt, Managing Editor at The American Journal of Managed Care. Welcome to This Week in Managed Care from the Managed Markets News Network
- Walmart pharmacies likely to leave CVS network because of pricing dispute (cnbc.com)
CVS announced...that Walmart pharmacies are leaving its network because of a dispute over pricing...Both Walmart and CVS are saying that the other company is trying to make prescriptions more expensive for consumers...CVS said it has asked Walmart to stay in its networks through April 30...Walmart is one of the largest pharmacy chains in the United States with about 4,600 locations, but CVS said that the matter will not considerably impact its financial results. Less than 5 percent of affected CVS Caremark members use only Walmart to fill their prescriptions...
- Cost, safety main reasons for personal prescription imports from Canada (chaindrugreview.com)
The Campaign for Personal Prescription Importation...released survey results highlighting the reasons Americans continue to purchase their personal prescriptions from licensed and legitimate online pharmacies in Canada, safely, at considerable cost savings, and often at the recommendation of a healthcare provider...The majority of respondents – 94% – cited cost as the main reason they order their medications from licensed, legitimate online pharmacies, which is an increase from last year’s survey in which 79% of respondents cited cost as the main reason. In addition, 97% of survey respondents would recommend ordering prescription medications from an online pharmacy in Canada to their friends and family members...