- Publix enhances free medication program (chaindrugreview.com)
Publix Super Markets Inc. has expanded supply options in its free medication program to help patients on maintenance medicines…The food and drug retailer said...that Publix Pharmacy will now offer free 90-day supplies of metformin, lisinopril and amlodipine to customers with a prescription for the medications. Previously, 30-day supplies of these medications were offered under the retailer’s free medication program… Publix noted that it enhanced the program to promote its pharmacy patients’ medication adherence…“Publix Pharmacy continues to enhance our free medication programs to best serve the needs of our customers,”… “With health care and prescription costs continuing to rise, medication adherence may prove challenging. The enhancement to our free prescription programs and pharmacy services allows our customers to focus on staying healthy and achieving their overall wellness goals.”
- Annual Specialty Therapies Conference; Jan. 28-29 | Planet Hollywood | Las Vegas, NV (drugchannels.net)Effectively Managing Specialty Therapies a Forum for Payers 2016 (cbinet.com)
CBI’s Specialty Therapies Forum, the conference that brings together healthcare and pharmaceutical thought leaders to share best practices for managing specialty therapies…an opportunity to discuss not only strategies for managing the cost of specialty therapies, but also to provide the latest information and case studies dedicated to ensuring access and quality care in specialty benefit management. New to the agenda this year is a workshop dedicated to Specialty Pipeline Management.
Dialogue led by key thought leaders:
Avella Specialty Pharmacy | Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts | Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Minnesota | Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina | Denver Health Medical Plan | Fairview Specialty Pharmacy | Florida Blue | Gorman Health Group | Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield New Jersey | Independent Health | NSHOA Cancer Centers in NY | Rutgers RWJ Medical School | Walgreens | Walmart | Widener University
- California, Oregon pharmacists to be allowed to prescribe birth control (seattletimes.com)
California and Oregon…will soon make access to birth control easier for millions of women by allowing them to obtain contraceptives from pharmacists without a doctor’s prescription…Most Western countries require a doctor’s prescription for hormonal contraceptives…but starting sometime in the next few months, women in California and Oregon will be able to obtain these types of birth control by getting a prescription directly from the pharmacist who dispenses them, a more convenient and potentially less expensive option than going to the doctor…Pharmacists will be authorized to prescribe contraceptives after a quick screening process in which women fill out a questionnaire about their health and medical histories…pharmacists’ organizations, plan to lobby for it across the country…One unanswered question, however, is whether insurers will pay for the time pharmacists spend reviewing women’s questionnaires or helping evaluate options. To cover that cost, some pharmacists may charge fees...The laws in Oregon and California differ in some ways. California’s has no age restriction; the Oregon law requires that teenagers under 18 obtain their first contraceptive prescription from a doctor. In California, pharmacists will also most likely have to take women’s blood pressure for contraceptives containing estrogen.
- Pharmacies Settle with Feds for Narcotics Mishandling (pharmacytimes.com)
A group of San Diego, California, pharmacies and their owners have paid $750,000 to the federal government to resolve drug diversion claims…pharmacies had been accused of mishandling prescription narcotics and ephedrine/pseudoephedrine products…The settlement was with Park Medical Pharmacy Inc…and owners Joseph Grasela and John Grasela…Drug Enforcement Administration alleged that the pharmacies had violated the Controlled Substances Act by diverting a “significant” amount of controlled substances, not taking adequate inventory of controlled substances, and not maintaining records of the pharmacies’ distribution of products.
- Q&A: J&J’s Alissa Hsu Lynch talks about partnering with retailers on health and wellness (drugstorenews.com)
Drug Store News recently had an opportunity to sit down with Alissa Hsu Lynch, VP sales strategy, operations and global capabilities at Johnson & Johnson Consumer to discuss how J&J is optimizing its health-and-wellness position in retail. Hsu Lynch leads the strategic development of key retail initiatives across J&J's $6 billion portfolio of consumer brands…
- How is J&J delivering value within the health-and-wellness space to its retailer customers?
- What core consumer segments do you see as key to your health-and-wellness strategy?
- How is the Affordable Care Act affecting your growth plans?
- How is technology changing the way you engage with patients and consumers?
- How are you aligning your company’s assets to match the go-to market strategy of large integrated retail healthcare providers?
- What key insight do you want your retail partners to know about the future of health care?
- New Jersey Legislation Permits Substitution With Interchangeable Biological Products (nabp.net)New Jersey Governor Christie Signs Bill Ensuring Patient Access to Interchangeable Biologic Medicines (businesswire.com)A2477 Eatablishes requirements for pharmacists to dispense biological products (njleg.state.nj.us)
In New Jersey, a bill (A2477) authorizing pharmacists filling a prescription for a biological medication to select an interchangeable biological product, was signed into law…A substitution cannot be made if the prescriber indicates that there shall be no substitution. The law requires the New Jersey State Board of Pharmacy to maintain a link on its website to FDA’s current list of interchangeable biological products. Further, the law requires a pharmacist or designee to notify the prescriber of the biological product dispensed, including the name of the product and the manufacturer, within five days…The pharmacist is also required to record on the prescription label, and record of dispensing, the product name of the interchangeable biological product, followed by the words “Substituted for” and the name of the biological medication for which the prescription was written, and the manufacturer of the interchangeable biological product.
- How Pharmacists Can Encourage Prescribers to Adopt E-Prescribing (pharmacytimes.com)Getting Started with EPCS (getepcs.com)
Ken Whittemore Jr, Surescript's senior vice president of professional and regulatory affairs, talks about some ways independent pharmacists could encourage local prescribers to adopt e-prescribing of controlled substances.
- Arizona inspectors find Theranos lab issues (azcentral.com)Safeway to dissolve partnership with Theranos (pharmacist.com)
Before…Theranos suspended use of its finger-prick blood draws in September because of Food and Drug Administration concerns, the company tangled with Arizona lab regulators over testing instruments and lab practices…Theranos, which operates retail locations inside 40 Walgreens stores across metro Phoenix, did not always meet lab regulations before taking corrective steps, according to inspection reports…After an April 2 survey of the company's Scottsdale lab, Arizona Department of Health Services inspectors noted four "deficiencies" at the lab...The state inspectors conducted the survey on behalf of the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which regulates laboratory testing…The four issues concerned proficiency testing, validation of instruments used to analyze blood samples, humidity levels outside of acceptable ranges for some lab instruments and how blood-sample collections were dated…In September, state lab inspectors said that Theranos did not meet proficiency testing standards for certain substances, including toxicology and four other regulated substances.
- Safeway brushes off Theranos, enlists local lab for DTC testing in Arizona (medcitynews.com)Theranos Fails to Deliver as Safeway Deal Unravels (foxbusiness.com)
Take that, Theranos!..Clearly determined to offer direct-to-consumer lab testing through pharmacies, grocery chain Safeway seems to be shaking off the reported demise of a partnership with the not-so-revolutionary-after-all testing company (Theranos)… Sonora Quest Laboratories, a joint venture of Quest Diagnostics and Phoenix’s Banner Health, has opened its first testing center at a Safeway in...Scottsdale, Arizona. A second one will open next week in an upscale part of Phoenix...
- Campus Pharmacy West Las Vegas: Now Open (medicine.nevada.edu)
...newest pharmacy location, Campus Pharmacy West, is...located next to...Las Vegas Patient Care Center on Charleston Blvd., just west of I-15...(next to the School of Medicine's Patient Care Center; 1701 W. Charleston Blvd., Suite 100; 702-992-6906)...Pharmacist Lawrence Coleman, R.Ph....serves as an excellent resource for both patients and practitioners dealing with medication management and best practices in pharmaceutical care....