Category:

Just as hospital pharmacists moved out of the basement and into direct patient care in the 1980s and 1990s, outpatient pharmacists are moving out from behind the counter and into medical practices...There is a demand for pharmacists from the physician side in ambulatory care...Allegheny Health Network...is putting pharmacists into about 250 different practices that are part of its accountable care organization, a payment model in which the health system receives higher reimbursement if it improves quality and reduces costs…The present model, which is physician-centric, is not getting us to that quadruple aim of better outcomes, lower costs, better patient satisfaction, and improving the work life of our healthcare providers. We are moving to a patient-focused model using team-based care...The pharmacist is not able to bring in direct revenue, but you can see a decrease in 30-day readmissions, a decrease in morbidity, a decrease in ER admissions because you have a pharmacist doing medication management and reconciliation. It is a matter of recognizing that the costs you are saving are different from direct billing...

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

The number of Nevada hospitals adhering to best practices on patient safety jumped in a new report…The state’s overall ranking rose to 16th, up from 40th in the spring...The rankings are based on the percentage of hospitals in the state earning A grades...which more than doubled in Nevada from just under 17 percent to 35 percent...Seven Nevada hospitals received top marks, including four in Southern Nevada: Henderson Hospital, Mountain View Hospital, North Vista Hospital and St. Rose Dominican Hospital, Rose de Lima campus. Northern Nevada Medical Center, Renown South Meadows Medical Center and St. Mary’s Regional Medical Center in Reno also received As.

Teens seeking to buy emergency contraception at pharmacies continue to face significant roadblocks…Researchers checking on the accessibility of the “morning after pill” at pharmacies in four Southwestern states found that just 28 percent made it simple and straightforward for teens to purchase the emergency contraception, according to the results published in the Journal of Adolescent Health…Despite the FDA ruling . . . that emergency contraceptives should be sold over-the-counter without age or identification restrictions, this is not being fully implemented into the pharmacy setting as anticipated…

...Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc and health insurer Humana Inc are in preliminary discussions to take equity stakes in each other...Humana said it would partner with Walgreens, with its unit operating senior-focused primary care clinics inside two Walgreens stores in Kansas...The companies are discussing the possibility of expanding that venture, among other options...

Tens of thousands of people in Africa die each year because of fake and counterfeit medication...The drugs are mainly made in China but also in India, Paraguay, Pakistan and the United Kingdom...Almost half the fake and low-quality medicines reported to the World Health Organization between 2013 and 2017 were found to be in sub-Saharan Africa...“Counterfeiters prey on poorer countries more than their richer counterparts, with up to 30 times greater penetration of fakes in the supply chain...The counterfeit drug market is worth around $200 billion worldwide annually...making it the most lucrative trade of illegally copied goods...

Democrats won back the House of Representatives in Tuesday's midterm elections, wresting control from Republicans in an outcome that will shape the next two years of Donald Trump's presidency...In congressional campaigns across the country, healthcare emerged as a key issue, with pre-existing conditions and rising prescription drug costs among the most prominently highlighted...there are several outcomes that look clear for drugmakers. Here are five:

1. More scrutiny on drug pricing
2. But not necessarily major disruption
3. Continued action in the states
4. Medicaid expansions to add to insured population
5. Business as usual at the FDA

Amazon is now the third-largest digital ad platform, but pharma marketers are mostly shut out. That’s because most of Amazon’s ads are for products sold by retailers, and of course, prescription drugs can't be purchased that way...as Amazon looks for an Rx entry, it's already launched its own Basic Care OTC medicine lineup. Pharma marketers with OTC brands should be figuring out their own strategies for Amazon...Over-the-counter remedies, which are part of many of Big Pharma's consumer divisions, are burgeoning on Amazon, so much so that Amazon quietly launched its own Basic Care brand line of OTC products last year…There are two typical Amazon advertising choices: sponsored brand ads or sponsored product ads...It's not really an advertising game OTC makers can sit out. Amazon is approaching a 50% market share in U.S. e-commerce sales...

Laura Joszt,  welcome to the Pharmacy Times News Network, 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.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has finalized site neutral payments in the hospital outpatient prospective payment system and ambulatory surgical center payment system rule...CMS is using site neutral payments to level the playing field between what physician offices and hospital outpatient departments are paid for certain clinical visits...In addition...CMS is expanding its 340B policy by extending the payment change to additional off-campus provider-based hospital outpatient departments that are paid under the physician fee schedule...Today's rule advances competition...for providers so they can compete for patients on the basis of quality and care...The final policies remove unnecessary and inefficient payment differences so patients can have more affordable choices and options.