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Amid the election fervor...Walgreens Boots Alliance quietly took action against its former partner, Theranos, for breach of contract...The retail pharmacy filed a $140 million lawsuit against the embattled blood test device maker, suing for breach of contract…”We are disappointed that Walgreens filed this lawsuit," Elizabeth Holmes...founder and CEO of Theranos said in a statement. "Over the years, Walgreens consistently failed to meet its commitments to Theranos."...On June 12 Walgreens announced that it would terminate its relationship with Theranos and close all 40 of its Theranos Wellness Centers, which operated in Arizona. This followed the company's January announcement that it was halting Theranos lab testing operations at its Palo Alto, Calif. location.

Nine different pharmaceutical pictograms that could help older people understand written medical information...Simple images designed to convey information about prescription drugs could help save lives and reduce the economic burden of non-adherence to treatment. New research...shows that including pictograms on written medication instructions helps seniors take their drugs correctly...Patients with multiple prescriptions can easily get confused and take the wrong medication, leading to hospitalization and even death…pictograms on a prescription drug label does help older people understand medical information and instructions. The pictograms provided information such as "take with meals" or "do not leave in direct sunlight" and warnings such as "poison" and "do not leave near children."...This not only prevents accidental overdose, it relieves some of the pressure that our aging population is putting on the health service by avoiding preventable tragedies...

Jennifer Andres, PharmD, BCPS, clinical assistant professor of pharmacy practice at Temple University School of Pharmacy discusses the sorts of services pharmacists can provide for hepatitis C patients.

CVS Pharmacy has agreed to pay $3.5 million to settle allegations that dozens of its Massachusetts pharmacies violated federal law by filling forged prescriptions for addictive painkillers and other controlled substances...Attorney Carmen Ortiz announced the settlement...CVS says it entered into the agreement to avoid the expense and uncertainty of further legal proceedings...settlement resolves two investigations by the Drug Enforcement Administration after reports of forged oxycodone prescriptions. One involved hundreds of forged prescriptions at 40 CVS stores in Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The other involved 120 forged prescriptions at 10 CVS stores in and around Boston.

As retail pharmacy celebrates America's military veterans...those veterans are celebrating retail pharmacy, at least those brick-and-mortar pharmacies not located within a VA medical center, a recent J.D. Power survey found...One reason? The ordering process. Veterans were more satisfied with retail brick-and-mortar pharmacies as compared to medical center pharmacies...veterans were more likely to understand explanations from retail pharmacists (93%) as compared to pharmacists from VA medical centers (80%), even though the average length of a conversation is longer at the VA (4.8 minutes with VA pharmacists vs. 3.8 minutes with retail pharmacists).

Does how a prescription for dermatologic medicine is written - either on paper or electronically—matter when it comes to whether patients will fill it and pick it up?...A new study...used data from a large, urban county health system to measure primary nonadherence—defined as not filling and picking up all dermatologic prescriptions within one year of the prescription date—and to study whether electronic prescribing impacted primary nonadherence...electronic prescribing increases the coordination between pharmacists and clinicians, less is known about how electronic prescribing affects the rate at which patients will fill or won't fill new prescriptions...The risk of primary nonadherence was 16 percentage points lower among patients given electronic prescriptions than patients given paper prescriptions...As the health care system transitions from paper prescriptions to directly routed e-prescriptions, it will be important to understand how that experience affects patients, particularly their likelihood of filling the prescriptions. Primary nonadherence is a common and pervasive problem. Steps should be taken to better understand why primary nonadherence happens and how it can be improved...

A sharp rise in prescription medication prices — driven by the introduction of new, expensive specialty medications and huge increases in the costs of older drug products with few competitors — drove an 11.7 percent increase in spending on medications in 2015, according to a new report published in AJHP (American Journal of Health-System Pharmacy)...The report projects an 11 to 13 percent increase in total drug expenditures in hospitals and health systems in 2016, which includes a 15 to 17 percent increase in clinic spending and a 10 to 12 percent increase in hospital spending...pharmacists need to be diligent about understanding what factors influence drug spending within their own organizations. "By understanding the key cost drivers, pharmacy leaders can implement programs to target them," he noted, adding that such strategies could include working with prescribers to use equally effective but less expensive medications or developing programs such as antibiotic stewardship to reduce unnecessary use of drugs...

Bartell Drugs is making sure that visually impaired customers are able to understand their prescription information. The...drug chain...has started offering three solutions for people with visual impairment who can’t read the print on their prescription drug container labels. Based on their need, these patients can now receive ScripTalk audible labels, ScripView large-print labels or Braille labels...It’s extremely important that patients know and understand the instructions for their medications. This can be challenging for our patients with visual impairments…

ScripTalk features a label embedded with a microchip containing all the printed prescription label data. The patient places the container onto a handheld reader and presses a button to listen to the prescription information, including patient name, drug name and medication instructions, as well as pharmacy contact information, contraindications and more.

ScripView is a large-print, booklet-style label attached to the prescription container that enables patients with low vision to read prescription information more easily. The label contains all the same information as the pharmacy’s regular label but in large print. Pharmacist can edit the font size based on the need of the patient.

Braille label tape can be added to a prescription with basic medication information...

Walgreens Boots Alliance said U.S. antitrust regulators are requiring a divestiture of between 500 and 1,000 retail stores if its acquisition of Rite Aid will be approved...In the Walgreens-Rite Aid deal, it’s the Federal Trade Commission that is evaluating the transaction and demanding divestitures if the deal is going to win approval...Despite the large divestiture of stores, Walgreens expects the deal to still close in the second half of this year leaving the company with more than 11,700 U.S. stores. Walgreens has 8,200 U.S. stores and Rite Aid has 4,500. Even a divestiture of up to 1,000 stores would make Walgreens larger than CVS Health and its 9,600 pharmacies ...Walgreens chief executive officer Stefano Pessina has vowed to be a consolidator in a U.S. market he sees as facing more government control of pricing thanks in part to broader health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. The U.S. also has a growing population of aging baby boomers gaining Medicare coverage.

Less than one month following Walgreens decision to terminate its relationship with Theranos, the blood-testing lab on Thursday announced that the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services has revoked the company's CLIA certificate, among other sanctions. The revocation of Theranos' CLIA certificate precludes the owners and operators of Theranos from owning, operating or directing a lab until at least July 2018...In addition to the revocation of Theranos' CLIA certificate, the full list of CMS sanctions include:

• Limitation of the laboratory’s CLIA certificate for the specialty of hematology;
• A civil money penalty;
• A directed portion of a plan of correction;
• Suspension of the laboratory’s approval to receive Medicare and Medicaid payments for any services performed for the specialty of hematology; and
• Cancellation of the laboratory’s approval to receive Medicare and Medicaid payments for all laboratory services.