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CMS took the latest step in its Patients over Paperwork initiative...issuing a proposed rule that would eliminate or update a slew of regulations deemed “unnecessary, obsolete or excessively burdensome” on providers...Should the rule be finalized, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services estimates that it would save providers $1.12 billion each year and eliminate millions of hours in administrative time. Through 2021, CMS projects $5.2 billion in total savings and 53 million hours of administrative burden eliminated...Much of the rule focuses on streamlining CMS’ conditions of participation and conditions for coverage, which the agency says will allow providers to operate more fluidly and efficiently without impacting patient safety and care quality. Some of the key changes the rule proposes include:

• Allowing health systems to use an integrated quality assessment and improvement platform across all their member hospitals.
• Creating a simpler process for providers to order portable X-ray machines and updating the requirements for portable X-ray technologists.
• Easing requirements for hospitals and ambulatory surgery centers for conducting physicals and collecting patient histories ahead of procedures.
• Eliminating a requirement for critical access hospitals to disclose people with a financial interest in the facility, as CMS also obtains that information outside of compliance with the conditions of participation.

The Department of Justice has given the green light to insurance giant Cigna Corp.'s planned $67 billion acquisition of pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts...The move terminates the applicable waiting period..The transaction still remains subject to certain state regulatory approvals and filings, including clearances from certain departments of insurance...Cigna and Express Scripts have obtained clearances from departments of insurance in 16 states. The companies are working with regulators in the remaining jurisdictions to obtain clearance for the merger...

Walgreens is taking proactive measures to assist customers, team members and communities in the projected path of Hurricane Florence, and is preparing to fully support impacted regions in the storm’s aftermath. The company is taking the following steps:

• Prescription Drug Preparedness: In advance of the hurricane, Walgreens is underscoring the importance of prescription preparedness for its pharmacy patients in areas that may be impacted. With a State of Emergency declared in parts of North Carolina and South Carolina, pharmacists in the state can refill medications up to a 30-day supply without requiring a prescriber’s refill authorization for any non-controlled substance.
• Customer Support: Walgreens is proactively staging temporary mobile pharmacies near the region that can be deployed, if necessary, to drugstores that may be damaged or unable to reopen in a timely manner. Walgreens has also staged emergency power generators that can be deployed to drugstores in areas where there is a loss of power.
• Relief and Recovery: The company will be evaluating its philanthropic response immediately following the hurricane and intends to activate its nationwide network of stores to allow individuals to donate to the American Red Cross hurricane relief efforts, in addition to preparing to donate needed items to emergency shelters.

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.

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

Are rural hospitals properly tracking and reporting healthcare-associated infections like clostridium difficile? What about screening their patients in ambulatory clinics for alcohol use and abuse?...Those quality measures are among a set of suggested measures the National Quality Forum released...in an effort to put rural providers “on a pathway” to improvement...The measures are part of the NQF’s Measure Applications Partnership, created under the Affordable Care Act to provide input to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services on the best performance measures for public reporting and performance-based payments...MAP singled out 20 measures that to fit the unique needs of rural providers and address their key concerns, such as access to care...The forum has recommended that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services adopt the measures in Medicare first, and then potentially expand them to Medicare Advantage...Ensuring that rural hospitals and providers can participate in quality improvement is crucial...

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.

Medical errors of all kinds, including medication errors, are now the third highest cause of death in the United States and may be responsible for 10% of all deaths in the country, according to a 2016 study by Johns Hopkins Medicine. According to the National Academy of Medicine, preventable medication errors harm 1.5 million Americans annually and cost hospitals an additional $3.5 billion each year...“I think the problem is becoming worse because this is a complex medical system that we have,”...Strategies to prevent medication errors in recent years include a move to electronic prescribing and adding barcodes to drug products. But experts say these efforts have not eliminated the need for vigilance among pharmacists, technicians, and other healthcare professionals in the community and hospital setting. Here’s more on the actions pharmacists need to take to avoid some of the most common medication errors.

• Processing Errors
• Dosage Errors
• Care Transition Errors
• Alert Fatigue Errors
• Other Errors
• Technology on the Horizon

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

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