The Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition (SCPC) applauded the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Thursday after it advanced the 21st Century Cures Act, which protects long-term-care (LTC) patients. The bill features language exempting Medicare Part D beneficiaries in skilled nursing facilities and other settings from a proposed medication-management "lock-in" provision that targets prescription-drug abuse. Read More »

Point-of-sale software developer will network with independent retail and outpatient pharmacies. Read More »

Medical practices in Connecticut participating in the Cigna Collaborative Care initiative are successfully meeting the goals of the program: improving quality and lowering medical costs. Read More »

Zynex Inc., a medical technology company, announced today it has been granted license approval from the state of Arkansas for its compound pharmacy business Pharmazy. Read More »

CVS Health Corp. will acquire Omnicare Inc., the leading provider of pharmacy services to long-term facilities, in a deal announced  for $98 per share in cash for a total enterprise value of around $12.7 billions, which includes a debt of $2.3 billion. Read More »

The Defense Health Agency (DHA) is taking action to help TRICARE beneficiaries amid recent aggressive and misleading marketing practices of some compounding pharmacies targeting TRICARE, Dr. George Jones, DHA's chief of pharmacy operations, said recently. Compounding pharmacies prepare medications for patients who need different medication-strength levels than those available in commercial products. Read More »

The June 1 removal of governmental direct drug price control will be credit positive for China’s pharmaceutical industry, Moody’s Investors Service said. Read More »

CutisPharma, a specialty pharmaceutical company, yesterday named President Neal Muni as the company’s new CEO. Read More »

According to data in the 2014 National Progress Report, Surescripts processed 6.5 billion health data transactions in 2014 -- more transactions in one year tham American Express and PayPal. Read More »

Proxsys Rx, LLC, said on Tuesday that it has partnered with Catavolt, a mobile technology developer, to aid hospitals in integrating outpatient pharmacy services into the continuum of care. The integration would benefit patients and health care providers by developing a bedside discharge-delivery application within a handheld tablet. Read More »

Crystal Clear RX, a software company serving Colorado’s pharmacy benefits management (PBM) industry, offers a reliable pharmacy auditing system called ClaimWiseRX to make pharmacy auditing much easier. Read More »

U.S. Rep. Stephen Lynch (D-MA) recently introduced a bill on Monday to improve federal oversight of the prescription-drug benefits available to federal workers, retirees and their families through the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program (FEHBP). Read More »

Ateb yesterday announced its continued relationship with the Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) and the appointments of four Ateb pharmacists to PQA’s measure development teams and stakeholder advisory panels for 2015. Read More »

Thanks to the Affordable Care Act’s Consumer Operated and Oriented Plan (CO-OP) Program, some 24 qualified nonprofit health insurance issuers have been created in 24 states using startup loans and solvency grants from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. The goal of these so-called CO-OPs is to increase consumer choice and foster competition in the individual and small group health insurance markets -- two goals now being undermined by premium rate turmoil. Read More »

65 percent of doctors surveyed said only some non-specialty drugstores could provide drugs Read More »

Hikma Pharmaceuticals PLC today announced that Hikma’s founder and honorary life president, Samih Darwazah, passed away Friday at the age of 85. Read More »

Amgen last week announced the first results from its global Phase 2, double-blind, placebo-controlled study that assesses the efficiency and safety of AMG 334 for the prevention of episodic migraine. Read More »

AB Acquisition LLC, parent company of Albertson’s LLC, New Albertson’s, Inc. and Safeway, Inc. announced last week that there Mark Panzer has been appointed as senior vice president of pharmacy, health and wellness. Read More »

McKesson Health Solutions unveiled the latest edition of InterQual, the company's flagship decision-support software and technology system, on Monday.      The 2015 edition includes 55 new and enhanced evidence-based clinical content areas and extensive updates, including the first admissions criteria to include comorbidities, criteria for 29 new specialty drugs and 33 new molecular diagnostic tests, as well as support for gene panels, among other features. Read More »

Pharmacy Quality Solutions (PQS) is offering pharmacies a new tool to help achieve even greater medication adherence and patient safety for customers in government programs. The new system, the Electronic Quality Improvement Platform for Plans and Pharmacies (EQuIPP), will promote better sharing of drug-related performance metrics with community pharmacies. The program will make it possible for pharmacies to easily track medication performance against Medicare Part D Star rating measures. Read More »