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Albertsons and Rite Aid on Wednesday evening announced that they had mutually decided to terminate the proposed merger...The termination came a day before Rite Aid was set to hold a special shareholders meeting at which the company has been urging its shareholders to vote in favor of the merger...“Albertsons believes that the strategic rationale of the Rite Aid combination was compelling, including the $375 million of cost synergies and $3.6 billion of identified revenue opportunities,” Albertsons said. “We disagree with the conclusion of certain Rite Aid stockholders and third-party advisory firms that although they acknowledged the strategic logic of the combination, did not believe that Albertsons was offering sufficient merger consideration to Rite Aid stockholders.”...Rite Aid chairman and CEO John Standley said that despite believing in the merits of the merger, it had listened to its stockholders and has committed to moving forward as a standalone company...

Public hospitals in Uganda have been hit by shortages of essential medicines and supplies needed for emergency care…The shortages are affecting the East African country’s main Mulago Hospital, which handles serious cases referred to it from other facilities, Uganda Medical Association said...UMA President Ekwaro Obuku...said government hospitals were experiencing serious shortages of basic medicines for emergency care such as vaccines and other drugs, syringes, gloves, catheters, gauze and others...Vivian Nakaliika Serwanjja, health ministry spokeswoman, said shortages had been caused by financial disruption at the government agency responsible for procurement of medical supplies...the scarcities are not widespread,” she said, adding only a few hospitals were affected and supplies had started being delivered...

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

Industry groups like easier quality reporting and advance applications of telehealth, but some say docs shouldn't have to make expensive EHR upgrades for 2019..."historic changes" announced...by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, promising big adjustments to its policies around the Physician Fee Schedule and the Quality Payment Program, already have the healthcare industry talking...CMS says it wants to incentivize the use of and access to virtual care and telehealth, to ease the quality reporting burden on physicians by focusing on the most important and impactful measures...also wants to spur better information sharing among healthcare providers, regardless of what electronic health record vendor they happen to use...CMS notes that these proposals will modernize Medicare payment policies to promote access to virtual care, saving Medicare beneficiaries time and money while improving their access to high-quality services no matter where they live...the new proposal would "help shift the nation’s electronic documentation away from overly long, form-driven, hard-to-read documents written primarily to satisfy billing requirements to what it was originally intended for – providing high- quality care to patients."...

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

Sanofi and Novartis said...they planned to increase stockpiles of medicines in Britain in preparation for potential disruption if the UK crashes out of the European Union without a deal...the European Medicines Agency...warned of bigger than expected staff losses and cuts in some activities as a result of having to move from London to Amsterdam due to Brexit...Supplies of thousands of medicines are at risk of disruption if Britain leaves the EU without a deal, forcing manufacturers to prepare duplicate product testing and licensing arrangements to ensure their drugs stay on the market...The European Medicines Agency...expressed “serious concerns” over the availability of some 108 medicines that are manufactured exclusively in the UK.

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.

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.

Walgreens Boots Alliance is launching a new digital marketplace that will connect the pharmacy chain's mobile visitors to its drugstores as well as local doctors and clinics...The move comes as Walgreens, CVS Health, Walmart and other brick-and-mortar retailers with health services face the possibility online retailer Amazon will expand deeper into the healthcare business...But Walgreens is stressing ties to local healthcare providers, which Amazon doesn’t yet have...Walgreens “Find Care Now” platform lists cash prices for healthcare services for everything from a local clinic or optometrist to the cost of a telehealth vendor’s virtual doctor consultation. For now, there are 16 local health systems and national healthcare providers participating in Find Care Now but Walgreens said they expect more to join the marketplace.

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.