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Rising prices and a shift toward more expensive medications are driving the increases in prescription drug spending, according to a new report from the Department of Health and Human Services...From 2013 to 2014, drug spending rose by an estimated 12.6 percent, ending a period of slower growth that had started in 2008...Drug spending is projected to rise again to $457 billion in 2015 — up from $424 billion in 2014 — and to continue to outpace the growth in overall health care spending through 2018...Prescription drugs will account for about 16.7 percent of all US health care spending in 2015, up from a recent low of 15.3 percent in 2013...What explains this trend in drug spending? The growing number of prescriptions was one factor, but that alone was not enough to explain why spending rose so much, according to the report...The report attributed most of that growth to more prescriptions being prescribed per person, while the rest of the growth resulted from an overall population increase...higher prices were a major factor, too...The report "ignores the tremendous value medicines provide to patients, including many that offer improved treatment options for conditions that previously had few or no options..."said PhRMA...

As the only pharmacist serving in Congress, US Representative Earl L. "Buddy" Carter is a critical leader of efforts to pass federal legislation pertinent to pharmacists...Pharmacy Times recently spoke with the first-term US Congressman, House Community Pharmacy Caucus co-chair, and Carter’s Pharmacy, Inc, owner about his pharmacy past and political progress.

• Why did you become a pharmacist?
• What part of the pharmacy profession stands out to you?
• How did you get into politics?
• Have you maintained your pharmacist license while serving in Congress?
• What is it like to be a pharmacist in Congress?
• How has being a pharmacist helped you understand and tackle legislative issues?
• What pharmacy-related objectives are on your to-do list in Congress?
• What are your thoughts about pharmacist provider status legislation and how are you advancing HR 592?
• What are your thoughts about PBM transparency legislation and how are you advancing HR 244?
• What are your thoughts about "any willing pharmacy" legislation and how are you advancing HR 793?
• What more do you plan to do to advance these 3 bills?
• What efforts is the House Community Pharmacy Caucus making to help community pharmacists?

The Department of Health and Human Services’ Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion  and CVS Health recently formed a public-private partnership. This partnership aims to increase awareness of the availability of convenient, consumer-centered, recommended preventive services using healthfinder.gov. Healthfinder.gov is a source of easy-to-use prevention and wellness information, designed using health literacy and usability principles...CVS Health, recognizing the important role of informing and engaging patients about preventive care...integrated the myhealthfinder API into the MinuteClinic website in a pilot project conducted jointly with the healthfinder.gov team at the ODPHP...we expect individuals to become more informed and active consumers of clinical preventive services...To extend the reach of federal programs that improve health literacy, and encourage prevention and healthy behaviors...the HHS and CVS Health collaboration could be a model for other retail clinics…Because of retail pharmacies’ consumer and convenience focus, and their important role in connecting patients to and sustaining their relationships with primary physicians, retail pharmacies add valuable perspective and insight to the assessment of preventive care.

New numbers show Nevadans have been slow to jump into the state's health insurance exchange…Department of Health and Human Services reported Wednesday that 23,248 Nevadans bought coverage through Nevada Health Link in the first month of open enrollment, from Nov. 1 through Saturday…That's roughly half of the 40,285 residents who bought a plan through the exchange in the first month of sign-ups a year ago…Federal officials said enrollment should pick up as the Dec. 15 deadline nears to buy a plan with a Jan. 1 start date...Consumers without coverage in place by then face a federal tax for going without health insurance.

Nevada's health insurance exchange disputes a federal report claiming it misallocated funds for creating its program and recommending it consider refunding $893,000 to the Centers Medicare and Medicaid Services...A refund is not needed, the Silver State Health Insurance Exchange stated in a written response to the report from the Office of Inspector General, Department of Health and Human Services...We believe that this conclusion is based upon an erroneous interpretation of federal guidance regarding cost allocation accounting principles and the timing of cost allocation adjustments...It also pointed to comments from CMS that not only back up the state agency's take on the matter but are also included in the OIG's own report...In its report, however, the OIG was not swayed, stating it believes "our first recommendation is valid." The OIG cited the Nevada agency for using outdated data when it was establishing its marketplace despite the availability of updated data, having no internal controls, allowing insufficient staff oversight, and having no written policy on the allocation process...The Nevada marketplace should have used the updated, better data to update its cost allocation methodology...

With four days left in the sign-up period, Nevada's health insurance exchange is closing in on 80,000 customers...Nevada Health Link had enrolled 79,055 people by Saturday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services said Wednesday...The sign-ups include automatic renewals from 2015, though the federal government didn't break down numbers by existing versus new enrollments...With three days left until the Jan. 31 enrollment deadline, Nevada Health Link has already bested the 72,000 sign-ups it had a year ago.

Regulators have logged dozens, even hundreds, of complaints against some health providers for violating federal patient privacy law. Warnings are doled out privately, but sanctions are imposed only rarely. Companies say they take privacy seriously...CVS is among hundreds of health providers nationwide that repeatedly violated the federal patient privacy law known as HIPAA between 2011 and 2014...Other well-known repeat offenders include the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Walgreens, Kaiser Permanente and Walmart...I don’t like the idea of repeat offenders not being called to task for that behavior and I would like to see us doing more in this regard...The number of health information privacy complaints submitted to the Office for Civil Rights within the Department of Health and Human Services has increased dramatically in recent years, in part because of the introduction of an online complaint portal...Using data provided by OCR under the Freedom of Information Act, ProPublica is launching a new tool, HIPAA Helper, which allows users to look up reports of privacy violations by provider for the first time. OCR’s material often referred to the same entities by multiple names. CVS was listed as “CVS,” “Pharmacy, CVS,” “Caremark, CVS,” “CVS Caremark”...We have standardized organizations’ names to make searching easier.

Last month, a group of lawmakers urged the National Institutes of Health and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to take "extraordinary" action to fight rising drug prices. HHS Secretary Sylvia Burwell responded this week that her agency got the lawmakers' message and is considering rolling out new guidelines to counter skyrocketing prices...The...letter from Doggett and his colleagues asked HHS to issue guidelines for "march-in rights" to address "price gouging" by pharma companies. March-in-rights give the agency the power to skirt patent protections for pricey meds developed with federal funding, effectively opening them up to generic competition...HHS has never used this tactic since the law was enacted in 1980, contending that it is an "extraordinary remedy" that should only be rolled out in extreme situations...Congressional reps contend that the recent price hikes, some of which have run to 5,000%, constitute immediate grounds for action by the agency. "Too many families and providers are facing an extraordinary challenge from unreasonably priced pharmaceuticals" and "too many drugs are not 'available to the public on reasonable terms," the lawmakers said in their letter.

Two days ahead of a key signup deadline, the federal government released new enrollment numbers for Nevada's health insurance exchange...Nevada Health Link had 77,411 enrollees on Wednesday, the Department of Health and Human Services reported...That means the exchange has already bested the 72,000 enrollees that bought coverage through the marketplace in all of 2015's open-enrollment period...The department said the latest numbers include existing customers who were automatically re-enrolled, though officials didn't break down how many enrollees were new versus returning...Consumers who haven't bought coverage by Jan. 31 face a federal tax of 2.5 percent of household income, or $695 per adult and $347.50 per child up to a household maximum of $2,085 — whichever is higher.

More than 72,600 Nevadans signed up for a Nevada Health Link plan between Nov. 1 and Saturday, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services....That's more than double the 35,000 enrollees who had selected a plan by this time in 2014...Consumers had to have a plan in place by Dec. 17 to qualify for coverage that would begin on Jan. 1, but they have until Jan. 31 to buy insurance and avoid a federal tax for lacking coverage. The tax in 2016 will equal 2.5 percent of household income, or $695 per adult and $347.50 per child up to a household maximum of $2,085 — whichever is higher...Nearly 70 percent of Nevada's exchange enrollees can find plans for $75 a month or less after tax credits...