Private Requests for Plan B
August 31, 2007
Via NCPA
Pharmacists and their staffs may start being handed “Patient Request Cards” from women seeking Plan B. The cards can be torn out of the September issue of Glamour magazine so women can request the drug in a private manner.
The card includes important facts about emergency contraception. The cards should not be collected.
McKesson Class Action Lawsuit
August 30, 2007
Via the AP:
A U.S. federal judge certified a class-action lawsuit against McKesson on behalf of consumers who claim the drug wholesaler conspired to inflate the average wholesale price (AWP) of prescription drugs used to determine payments by Medicaid and insurance plans.
The class includes consumers who made co-payments on brand name prescription medicines from August 1, 2001 to March 15, 2005, that the suit alleges had artificially inflated prices.
“Plaintiffs have a persuasive argument that the alleged fraud had a class-wide impact because the AWP baseline for negotiation of new contracts was fraudulently increased,” the Judge wrote in her ruling.
According to the complaint, beginning in late 2001, McKesson and publishing company First Databank, agreed on how the AWP would be set for brand-name drugs, raising the spread between the published AWP and actual costs in an effort to increase profits.
First DataBank earlier this year agreed to a proposed settlement of the suit that consumer advocacy groups said could cut the cost of prescription drugs paid for by health plans by up to $4 billion.
“It is clear to us that McKesson’s motivation was to extract higher profits on the backs of healthcare consumers, many of whom are stretched to the economic breaking point,” Steve Berman, a co-lead attorney for the class, said in a statement.
“We believe that the damages incurred by healthcare consumers and third party payers could range in the billions of dollars,” Berman said.
McKesson said it would not comment on pending litigation.
The McKesson Corporation, originaly founded in 1833, is a Fortune Global 500 company, the 16th largest company in the United States, and the single largest health care company in the world. Mckesson is also one of the oldest continually operating businesses in the United States.
Risperdal approved for use in children
August 24, 2007
Studies by Johnson & Johnson found that a higher Risperdal dose was no more effective than a lower one in children and that information will be included on the drug’s label.
The FDA approval comes with important information for doctors about dosing and side effects.
Researchers found that side effects in the pediatric studies were similar to those experienced in adults and included drowsiness, fatigue, increase in appetite, anxiety, nausea, dizziness, dry mouth, tremor and rashes.
Before the FDA granted Risperdal this approval, Lithium was the only approved drug for treating bipolar disorder in adolescents 12 years old and up.
DEA considers rescheduling Hydrocodone
August 21, 2007
The DEA is considering moving hydrocodone from Schedule III to Schedule II in hopes of better controlling diversion and misuse.
Hydrocodone-based drugs like Vicodin and Lortab have become the most popular opiate-based painkillers in America. 124 million prescriptions for the drugs were written in 2005, with prescriptions rapidly increasing. Doctors who were scared off by the problems associated with OxyContin switched their patients to hydrocodone.
Some observers say the looser restrictions on the Schedule III drug, more specifically regarding refills where allowed by state law, have made hydrocodone products a target for abuse.
Legal distribution of the drugs has risen 66 percent since 2001, but hydrocodone also has become the most common pharmaceutical submitted into evidence to forensic labs and the most likely to result in an emergency-room visit.
The DEA considered this once before in 2004, but the drug remains a Schedule III.
Pharmacists and Doctors would inevitably have increased liability if hydrocodones are rescheduled. Share your thoughts in the Comments or our Forum.
NAPLEX Cheating
August 14, 2007
On Monday August 6th, US Marshals seized materials and computers from the University of Georgia College of Pharmacy and the offices and home of professor Flynn Warren Jr., M.S. This action by the federal court followed investigations and complaints by the NABP into alleged breaches of the NAPLEX (North American Pharmacist Licensure Examination) and MPJE ( Multistate Pharmacy Jurisprudence Examination).
Following allegations of the NAPLEX and MPJE exams being compromised, there are rumors that NABP is considering shutting down the current version of NAPLEX and MPJE tests.
A Call to Action
August 10, 2007
I’ve written some news items here before about the Children’s Health Insurance program, its necessary expansion, and its hold up on the hill by the right.
I’ve come across a link worth checking out. Covertheuninsured.ord is a website with facts, figures, guidance, and local events across the country. It can tell you who to write, how to get involved, and if you are in need, how to get your child covered.
There are other Pharmacy blogs out there that piss and moan about people on a sate assistance health program and all the drugs that their taxes have to pay for. These are mostly by Pharmacists who can, more than likely, afford insurance for their family.
Then they fire back with “if you can’t afford to raise children then don’t have one” and some other small minded one sided response. And I am sure that their rants are directed at a small percentage of the population, not entire amount of people on these programs. But, a nice and polite hard working Medicaid patient just doesn’t make for good blog fodder, now does it?
Bottom line, these programs are important. Children have the right to health coverage. In my opinion, every working American does.
Publix offers free antibiotics
August 7, 2007
Retailer Publix said it would give out 7 antibiotics (amoxicillin, ampicillin, cephalexin, ciprofloxacin [excluding ciprofloxacin XR\], erythromycin [excluding Ery-Tab], sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim and penicillin VK) up to a 14-day supply for free with a valid script.
Publix said those antibiotics account for nearly 50 percent of the generic pediatric prescriptions filled at its stores. The company, which has more than 900 stores in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee, runs 684 pharmacies.
Pharmacy “Error” covered by local News
August 3, 2007
A CVS in Oklahoma City sent a man home with someone else’s medication. The man noticed the name on the vial before taking the pills, and immeidatley called the Pharmacy to notify them of the mix-up.
This has happened before. He went one step further and contacted the local media. I assume, that on the coat tails of the infamous 20/20 report, the local NBC affiliate KFOR covered the story. While any error of any magnitude is unacceptable, some thing happen. Seeing as how he did not take the medicine, this becomes more of a Privacy (HIPPA) issue. Once agian, the media fails to inform us with more viatal informationt to judege if this is an error that should cost this sore our business.
Watch this Video below, and comment here or in our forums.
