Current laws in North Dakota require that pharmacists own at least 51% of the operating pharmacy. The impact of the law has been the exclusion of large pharmacy chains in the state. The only chain pharmacy in the state, CVS, has six locations and was grandfathered into the current law. An initiative scheduled to hit […]
The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) has rallied behind the “Medication Therapy Management (MTM) Expanded Benefits Act of 2010”. Introduced by Senators Kay Hagan (D-NC) and Al Franken (D-MN), the bill seeks to expand MTM to specific Medicare patients. Those with chronic illnesses would be eligible for a medication review and consultations with a pharmacist to […]
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) is working to address the Medicare Part D coverage gap for those receiving benefits for prescription drugs. The current plan includes a coverage gap, or “donut hole”, that suspends drug benefits when patients fall within certain limits of the plan. Early this year President Obama signed the […]
A report by Medco Health Solutions, Inc. found that prescription drug use by children increased more than adult drug use last year. The report cited a 5 percent increase among kids in comparison to an overall rise of 1.3 percent. The highest jump was in anti-viral drugs use attributed to cases of the swine flu. […]
Gold Standard/Elsevier has announced that it will continue to publish drug price databases that include the average wholesale price (AWP) in addition to the calculated price types that include various markup percentages. The announcement comes as several other drug price databases have announced their intention to withdraw the AWP from their program price lists.
The Food and Drug Administration is responding to 121 known cases of consumers drinking Benadryl Extra Strength Itch Stopping Gel by asking consumers to pay close attention to the warnings not to ingest the topical gel. The 121 cases have been recorded between 2001 and 2009 and in most cases the bottle of topical gel […]
A study conducted at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital in Palo Alto, CA, suggests that the implementation of an electronic prescription system lead to a 20 percent drop in the mortality rate since 2007. The computerized physician order entry (CPOE) system is credited with the reduction because it has cut in half the time it takes […]
Last year the state of California implemented an online prescription database that records the drug use for patients who receive prescription medications. Doctors and hospitals are now able to access the records online to determine if patients might be prescription drug abusers or sellers.
