PBMs, pharmacists feud over drug costs

Pharmacy-benefits managers, or PBMs, and independent pharmacists are using a recently released AARP “RX Price Watch Report” as an opportunity to engage in a battle of words over which group is more responsible for rising prescription drug costs.
The AARP report, released earlier this month, found that 2009 retail prices for 217 prescription drugs widely used [...]

AARP Report Fuels Debate Over Drug Pricing; AHIP, PHRMA, NCPA And PCMA Join In

A new report by AARP’s Public Policy Institute, which concluded that prices for Medicare’s most commonly used brand-named drugs dramatically increased in 2009, has prompted debate among several players in the health care sector. An insurance industry source says AARP’s finding that drug prices increased by 8.3 percent in 2009 is [...]

Mail Order vs. Local Prescriptions

Mechanicsburg, Pa. – Some big health insurance companies favor using mail-order pharmacies because it saves the insurance company money. Some critics, however, say it’s limiting consumer choice.
If you want to speak with the corporate office at the Medicine Shoppe in Mechanicsburg, you’ll find him right behind the [...]

Drugstores, pharmacy-benefit managers vie for prescriptions

Bob Schreiber’s business in Morrisville, Burns Pharmacy, was briefly famous as the setting for a scene in Signs, the M. Night Shyamalan movie that depicts a scary alien invasion threatening a Bucks County farm family.Nearly a decade later, the disturbing threat to Schreiber and at least some of his customers isn’t an alien.
It’s the growing [...]

EHR Rules Loosen Requirements; Multi-Campus Hospitals Get One Payment

HHS made it easier for hospitals and doctors to receive incentive payments for using electronic health records by reducing the number of requirements they must meet to be considered “meaningful users” of EHR in a pair of rules released today. But hospital are disappointed that CMS will give a single base payment to hospitals with [...]

Pharmacist group calls on CMS to bolster e-prescribing safeguards in new ‘meaningful use’ rule

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) is calling on the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to enhance the patient safeguards in the “meaningful use” rule unveiled by the agency Tuesday.
Doctors, for instance, should be required to perform safety checks before receiving incentive payments for e-prescribing, the group said Tuesday. Additionally, PCMA President and [...]