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A little more than one week following its reintroduction in the Senate, provider status legislation is again being entertained in the House...the Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Areas Enhancement Act (H.R.592)...will make it easier for Medicare patients in underserved communities to receive care...The...Act would allow Medicare beneficiaries to receive basic care such as immunizations, diabetes management, blood pressure screenings and routine checks from pharmacists. The bill reached impressive levels of bipartisan support… There is currently no avenue for Medicare to directly reimburse pharmacists for providing this care...The work already is underway to build on the momentum that was started in the last Congress, to accelerate the campaign to enhance the quality, accessibility and affordability of patient care through pharmacist-provided services...Pharmacists are highly-accessible, clinically-trained medication experts who can improve health outcomes and reduce overall costs…We hope the common-sense, bicameral, bipartisan legislation, which also generated a lot of support in the previous Congress, can pass both chambers and make it to President Trump’s desk for his signature...

Drug Channels Institute...released its...in-depth analysis of the highly dynamic prescription drug distribution industry...2016–17 Economic Report on Pharmaceutical Wholesalers and Specialty Distributors reveals how list price increases of brand-name drugs are boosting the industry’s revenues, even as changes in the U.S. healthcare system threaten wholesalers’ profits...We project that U.S. drug distribution revenues at the Big Three public wholesalers—AmerisourceBergen, Cardinal Health, and McKesson—will exceed $400 billion in 2016...But any change in drug price inflation rates or in manufacturers’ rebate strategy will be very negative for wholesalers’ future revenues and profits...Consolidation among pharmacies and hospitals is making it difficult for wholesalers to capture value and profits from the booming specialty drug market...And contrary to many people’s expectations, specialty biosimilar drugs seem poised to deliver only minimal incremental profits for wholesalers...

There are 2 important stakeholders when it comes to specialty medications: the patients and the providers. Both groups have a vested interest in the clinical outcome..."what would I expect if I were a specialty patient or a specialized provider?"...Once the reality of the condition begins to set in, then the needed medication must be started to improve clinical outcomes. How would the ideal specialty pharmacy interact with both the patient and their provider?...The ideal specialty pharmacy would have clear upfront communication with both parties. Proactive communication and referral management for the provider would allow the specialist to know precisely what services and capabilities the specialty pharmacy provides...The provider then could inform the newly diagnosed patient that...their expertise, and that of the specialty pharmacy, will ensure the best possible clinical outcomes. At this point, the referral has been sent to the specialty pharmacy, and the patient's interaction with the specialty pharmacy begins.

As the name and meaning of specialty medications have grown over time, so too has the importance of these pharmaceuticals, said Steven D. Pearson, MD, MSc, president of the Institute for Clinical and Economic Review.

Hy-Vee Inc. subsidiary Amber Pharmacy ranked the highest out of all U.S. specialty pharmacies in patient satisfaction with pharmacy staff in a survey conducted by Zitter Health Insights...Fielding responses from more than 3,000 patients across 38 U.S. specialty pharmacies, the...survey assessed a range of aspects of patient satisfaction. Amber said that its pharmacists, nurses, pharmacy technicians and billing department scored 100%, and its customer service representatives scored 95%...A key component of the survey was the Net Promoter Score, an index of 1 to 100 that gauges patients’ willingness to recommend their pharmacy to others. Amber said its NPS across all categories was 74, the second-highest score of all pharmacies assessed...The...survey also assessed patient satisfaction in therapeutic categories...Amber led the transplant category with an NPS of 83 and was among the top two pharmacies in the oncology and rheumatoid arthritis categories.

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.

Kevin James, RPh, MBA, vice president of payer strategy at US Bioservices, discusses the impact of Accountable Care Organizations on specialty pharmacy.

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...

Paul LeVine, vice president of Analytic Services at TrialCard, discusses how specialty pharmacies can best utilize data to improve patient outcomes.

Erin Hohman, PharmD, BCPS, director of Clinical Pharmacy Services at Amber Pharmacy, discusses trends in the specialty pipeline pharmacists should keep an eye on.