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Mississippi, You’re On My Mind
New research by pharmacy benefit manager Express Scripts has found that the “U.S. wasted $418 billion in 2012 based on bad medication-related decisions, and the impact was most deeply felt in those states that could least afford it.” The Express Scripts analysis looked at pharmacy-related decisions …
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NCPA Endorses Bill to Increase Medicare Drug Costs
With Medicare spending representing a massive and growing part of federal deficits, why would anyone want to increase Medicare costs? But that’s just what new legislation backed by the National Community Pharmacists Association would do. The bill, S. 867, introduced on May 6, 2013, by Senators …
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Health Care Fraud Costs Everyone
Without a doubt, our nation’s health care system faces an array of challenges related to quality, affordability, and access. Given the breadth of our challenges, it makes the prevalence of fraud, waste, and abuse in our system that much more frustrating and galling. Depending on …
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New Report Details Potential Medicaid Savings from Using PBM Tools
In addition to offering significant savings for private health insurers, pharmacy benefit management (PBM) tools could save the Federal government and state governments $74.4 billion in Medicaid costs over ten years according to a new report by the Menges Group prepared for the Pharmaceutical Care …
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Diabetes Patients May See Improved Outcomes with New Weekly Injection
Diabetes is one of the most common chronic diseases of our generation, affecting about 25.8 million Americans and 371 million people worldwide. Type 2 diabetes accounts for between 90 and 95% of all diabetes cases. For international as well as domestic healthcare agencies, designing an …
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FDA Blocks U.S. Introduction of Generic OxyContin
This past December, Canada’s Health Ministry approved the manufacture and sale of generic oxycodone in its originally patented non-abuse resistant formulation. This year, it was the FDA’s turn to consider the issue, with Purdue Pharma’s original non-abuse resistant formulation patent of OxyContin expiring April 16th. …
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Pharmaceutical Companies Playing on Safety Rules to Impede Cost-Saving Generics
In a recent post, we talked about how pharmaceutical companies use “evergreen” techniques to work around the expiration of patents and extend profitable exclusivity periods for branded drugs. Now the New York Times has revealed another set of techniques in what pharmaceutical companies euphemistically call …
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Changing Behavior through Electronic Prescribing
One of the greatest challenges facing the health care system is how best to influence and change both individuals’ and clinicians’ behaviors. Over the past 50 years, whole industries have sprouted up around exercise, nutrition, obesity control, and smoking-cessation programs. Despite notable set-backs — especially …
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Forcing Seniors & Disabled People to Pay Higher Prescription Drug Costs
Every once in a while, independent drugstores push a policy argument that leaves us scratching our heads. The NCPA’s latest notion is the idea that Medicare Part D preferred pharmacy networks might threaten access to quality care and threaten the survival of community pharmacies. In …
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A Look At Drug Spending Trends and the Impact of Pharmacy Benefit Management Tools
The release by Express Scripts of its 2012 Drug Trend Report gives us an opportunity to look at trends in drug spending in the United States. Here is the press release announcing the new drug trend report. First the good news. Among the commercially insured population, …
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