Indiana’s relaxed telemedicine rules went into effect July 1. Generally, under the new rules a prescriber (defined as a physician, physician assistant, advanced practice nurse, optometrist, or podiatrist) may prescribe...more
The federal government has made no secret of its concern over what is invariably described as an “opioid epidemic” sweeping the country. Nor is it a secret that the government sees prescribing physicians—especially primary...more
From the founding of the Republic, Americans have joked about the poor handwriting of physicians. Well, all the Americans except the ones who got the wrong medicine because pharmacists misread handwritten prescriptions....more
A consortium of hospitals from across the country has delivered a letter to Congressional leaders, urging them to preserve the federal 340B program in its present form. Neither the content nor the timing of the letter was...more
A March 11 policy conference in Washington produced some creative thinking about the problem of high-cost specialty drugs. And on the same day, the RAND Corp. think tank released a study on the subject, “Borrowing for the...more
On January 14 the Texas Supreme Court will hear argument in an appeal that asks the question, When is a pharmacist not a pharmacist? The appeal is from a Texas Court of Appeals decision that answered the question this way: ...more
Brand name drugs cost a lot. So to make them more attractive, drug manufacturers issue coupons for discounts on the copayment portion of the price. They work the same as the dollar-off coupons offered by cereal manufacturers....more
HHS isn’t ready to throw in the towel in the fight over expansion of the 340B program under the Affordable Care Act (ACA). On Thursday HHS said in a court filing that it will appeal last month’s federal court ruling that...more
In an example of life imitating art, several states are considering “right-to-try” legislation to make experimental drugs—drugs that don’t have FDA approval—available to the terminally ill. Colorado and Louisiana have...more
The 340B program requires pharmaceutical manufacturers with Medicaid-covered products to give discounts on covered drugs purchased by eligible entities, which include disproportionate share hospitals, critical access...more
Last Friday a federal district court invalidated a regulation that had authorized the 340B discount for critical access hospitals, sole community hospitals, rural referral centers and free-standing cancer hospitals when they...more