MeridianRX said it earned a 100 percent score and met all seven optional leading indicators on its way to a Utilization Review Accreditation Commission (URAC) accreditation for Pharmacy Benefit Management, the company said on Thursday. Read More »

Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) formed a formal research partnership on Wednesday with AllazoHealth to study and improve industrywide standards for medication adherence metrics. Read More »

Pfizer, the American Pharmacists Association (APhA), and the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) have partnered to create a program for medication synchronization, which is for patients who need more than one medication refilled each month. Now over 10,000 pharmacies use the Appointment-based Model (ABM), also known as med sync, to refill medications for patients with chronic conditions. Read More »

BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy has chosen Jamie Damm to serve as its vice president of managed care. Read More »

Study predicts $11.8 billion savings over next 10 years Read More »

Unity Health Plans Insurance Corporation on Tuesday announced the formation of a new fully owned subsidiary, QuartzSM. Read More »

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) launched its first mobile app on Wednesday, which is designed to increase public access to important information on drug shortages. Read More »

The Pharmacy Benefit Management Institute during its annual drug benefit conference on Tuesday presented Prime Therapeutics with the 2015 Rx Benefit Innovation Award. The award is presented to organizations that display innovative management approaches to address drug benefit challenges. Read More »

Based off a January study, the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) recommended that the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) expand its outreach efforts to reduce antipsychotic drug use among older adults with dementia to include those not living in nursing homes. Read More »

AstraZeneca on Tuesday announced that it completed the transaction to acquire the rights to Actavis’ branded respiratory business in the United States and Canada. Read More »

Clyde L. Reese III, commissioner of the Georgia Department of Community Health, on Monday announced the appointment of Linda Wiant as new chief of the Medical Assistance Plans Division. Read More »

The growth of health care spending has plateaued, while brand-name prescription drug prices appear to have been increasing more quickly in recent years, according to an article by John Graham, senior fellow at the National Center for Policy Analysis. Read More »

The Partnership for Prescription Assistance (PPA) launched a redesigned website on Tuesday, with new functionality and features that give caregivers and patients easier, faster access to information on more than 475 private and public patient assistance programs. Read More »

Centene Corp. on Feb. 27 announced that Nurtur, its health and wellness company serving employers, health plans and government programs, received at Wellness and Health Promotion Accreditation renewal from the National Committee for Quality Assurance. Read More »

The House Committee on Ways and Means passed multiple bills last week to protect Medicare, including the Protecting the Integrity of Medicare Act of 2015. Read More »

Congressman Bruce Poliquin recently wrote to the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) about a rule that could enable pharmaceutical companies to distribute prescription information through electronics rather than through paper. The letter, which he sent to Dr. Margaret Hamburg (Commissioner of the FDA), opposes the idea that the companies should be allowed to electronically send such information to health care professionals. His reasoning is that there are still many families witho Read More »

A survey by Xcenda, published in the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy’s March edition of “Journal of Managed Care and Specialty Pharmacy,” showed that 75 percent of pharmacists are most confident substituting interchangeable biosimilars for brand biologics when products share non-property name. Read More »

Bravos Private Equity Partners, LLC, a private investment firm, said on Thursday that it has agreed to sell its portfolio company, Healthcare Solutions, to Catamaran Corp. Read More »

Omnicell, a provider of medication and supply management solutions to health care systems and pharmacies, said on Thursday that it signed an agreement to purchase MACH4 Pharma Systems, which supplies highly automated medication management systems to over 1,000 retail hospitals and pharmacies in Europe, China and the Middle East. Read More »

A bill was introduced in the U.S. House this week to prevent Medicare fraud. Read More »