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Some ailing veterans can now use their federal health care benefits at CVS "MinuteClinics" to treat minor illnesses and injuries, under a pilot program announced...by the Department of Veterans Affairs...The new program, currently limited to the Phoenix area, comes three years after the VA faced allegations of chronically long wait times at its centers, including its Phoenix facility, which treats about 120,000 veterans...The Phoenix pilot program is a test-run by VA Secretary David Shulkin who is working on a nationwide plan to reduce veterans' wait times...Veterans would not be bound by current restrictions under the VA's Choice program, which limits outside care to those who have been waiting more than 30 days for an appointment or have to drive more than 40 miles to a facility. Instead, Phoenix VA nurses staffing the...medical center's help line will be able to refer veterans to MinuteClinics for government-paid care when "clinically appropriate."..."We believe in the MinuteClinic model of care and are excited to offer our health care services as one potential solution for the Phoenix VA Health Care System and its patients," said Tobias Barker, chief medical officer of CVS MinuteClinic...

Researchers involved in an outcomes-based pilot between Genentech and Priority Health, a Michigan-based health insurer, argued that broader industry participation is needed for these agreements to be successful...In a study...the drugmaker and the insurer detailed the terms and challenges of the value-based program for Avastin…They also urged other organizations to continue to engage in value-based contracts, despite their inherent complexity...There are several reasons why these kinds of contracts, usually involving drugmakers taking on some degree of financial risk and payers promising prescription volume in turn for drugs that yield better outcomes for patients, have been gaining in popularity…

• The U.S. health system as a whole has been moving away from a volume-based, or fee-for-service, system to a value-based model…
• Healthcare decision makers are challenging pharmaceutical manufacturers to demonstrate the value of their medicines, not just in terms of clinical efficacy but also in terms of economic and quality-of-life outcomes…
• ...what five qualities make for a successful contract? Leadership commitment, the choice of drug (outcomes should be able to be proved within a year), agreed-upon definitions and metrics, finding a way to track data in the simplest way possible, and figuring out to address the government rules about pricing…

From 2007 to 2014, private insurance claim lines with opioid abuse and dependence diagnoses increased 487 percent in New York State. The greatest increase occurred in the New York City suburbs (Nassau, Rockland, Suffolk and Westchester), where the rise was 1,459 percent—compared to 324 percent for New York City and 310 percent for the rest of the state...These dramatic trends were identified when we investigated recent opioid-related data from New York State in our FAIR Health database of over 23 billion privately billed healthcare claims, the largest such repository in the country...In this article, we report the findings in terms of "claim lines," which are the individual services or procedures listed on an insurance claim. "Percent of claim lines" is the percent of all claim lines associated with a specific group of diagnosis codes...particularly the codes associated with opioid abuse or dependence—in a defined time period…

• Upstate New York
• Opioid-Related Diagnoses by Category
• Overdoses by Age and Gender

A report from the University of Nevada...shows Elko County is struggling to meet all the health care needs of its residents...Dr. John Packham presented the findings to the county’s Health Board...Packham says Elko County has "about a third of the providers for mental health as compared to the state average." He says other rural areas have seen these provider shortages but they’re more severe in Elko County due to the county’s population growth...the county is unique in that it has a younger population and doesn’t have some of the same health issues as other rural countries...According to the report, about 25 percent of the county’s population was on Medicaid and Medicare last year.

A Sacramento woman was recently certified as California’s and the nation’s first cannabis pharmacy technician or "budtender."...Shayna Schonouer isn’t just an expert on all things cannabis-related when it comes to using marijuana products to treat a medical condition. She is now the only person in the nation to hold the state-sanctioned title of "budtender."...Schonouer has just wrapped-up a two-year program making her the first graduate apprentice in the field of pharmacy cannabis technician..."She’s not a doctor, she’s not a pharmacist — but she has in this industry enough expertise to help people make informed decisions on their choices to self-medicate," explained Don Merrill, who works for the state’s Department of Industrial Relations and helps run the program...She will now work with pharmacists who offer cannabis products to patients coping with cancer or any chronic condition...It will also be her job to make sure the cannabis products coming in to shops and pharmacies are properly tested...

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

Maryland lawmakers have passed a first-in-the-nation measure that lets the state attorney general sue generic drug makers that sharply raise prices in a move aimed at fighting what legislators call "price-gouging."...The bill overwhelmingly was approved by the Democratic-controlled legislature on Monday and hailed by Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh as a way to check sharply higher prices for crucial generic drugs…Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, has not said whether he would sign the legislation...The bill allows Maryland's state authority on Medicaid...to let the attorney general's office know when it sees patients being charged an "unconscionable increase" for essential generic drugs...The attorney general could then seek an explanation from the manufacturer and sue to protect consumers, with a fine of up to $10,000 for each violation. A judge could order the company to reverse its price increase.

...Enrollment is challenging across nearly all clinical trials. But for the rare disease variety, it’s often akin to finding a needle in a haystack — or in some cases a field of haystacks, if the illness is particularly uncommon. Though sponsors have over the years crafted electronic tools to resolve geographical barriers and reimbursement programs to alleviate financial burdens on patients, many of the studies’ inherent complications have yet to be fully remedied...In the most extreme cases, though, recruitment woes can squelch trials before they start or sap investor faith in a candidate...

Understanding the disease...Before researchers consider a patient for a clinical trial, they first need to determine whether he or she actually has the disease under investigation...having clinicians who understand a rare disease well enough to properly diagnose it — a resource often concentrated at universities or specialized research centers — can be a limiting factor…

Getting patients there -...identifying possible participants for a trial is the first hurdle in the race to enrollment, the next is getting them to sign on...

Making it all worth it -...Despite the immense preparation needed to enroll and conduct orphan drugs trials, many don’t have standardized endpoints...the right ones that would show the transformative nature of the therapy...

Nicole Crisano, PTNN. This weekly video program provides our readers with an in-depth review of the latest news, product approvals, FDA rulings and more.

• Newsletter Goes Electronic
• More on Opiate Addiction
• DEA Changes Registration Renewal Process
• ISMP Medication Safety Self Assessment for Community/Ambulatory Pharmacy
• CDC Publishes Resource to Foster Use of JCPP Pharmacists’ Patient Care Process
• FDA Issues Final Guidance on Repackaging Drugs by Pharmacies and Registered
• Outsourcing Facilities
• CriticalPoint Launches QP503A CertificationProgram for Sterile Compounding in 2017
• PTCB Suspends Implementation of Planned 2020 Accredited Education Requirement for Pharmacy Technicians
• ASOP Global Spreads Awareness About Illegal Online Drug Sellers and Counterfeit Medications
• New Interactive Map Tracks Pharmacist Vaccination Laws
• PMP Data Submission Accuracy
• Attention Pharmacy Managers!