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 »

Benzer Pharmacy, formerly known as Rx Care Pharmacy, was recently ranked 36th in the category of sales by dollar volume in the 2014 North America's Top 50 Drugstore Operators rankings.Benzer, a chain of independent retail pharmacies specializing in compound and specialty medications, has more than 40 locations throughout Florida, Michigan, Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee and Texas. Read More »

CARE Pharmacies Cooperative Inc. and Aureus Health Services Inc. have formed a partnership to facilitate specialty pharmacy management, the companies announced Thursday. Read More »

In 2014 the North American pharmacy information system market carried a value of more than $1.3 billion and its value is expected to increase to more than $2 billion by 2019, MicroMarket Monitor report said Monday. Pharmacy Information Systems (PIS) is an application used by medication dispensaries to increase patient safety by helping decrease the amount of errors in the dispensing process. It also provides information about dosage times and limits for specific patients based on their age, we Read More »

The Pharmaceutical Society of Australia (PSA) said Monday it applauds a decision by lawmakers to increase funding for pharmacist programs and professional services in the Sixth Community Pharmacy Agreement (6CPA).The decision increases funding from $600 million to $1.2 billion over the next five years. Read More »

Kathy Norris was recently promoted to become director of patient care services for BioPlus Specialty Pharmacy. Read More »

Five Medicare plans received Pharmacy Quality Alliance (PQA) Quality Awards, the organization announced Tuesday. Read More »

A report from Express Scripts released at its Outcomes Symposium Wednesday indicates that as medical costs have increased, the number of patients with annual medication costs amounting to $100,000 has tripled over the course of the previous year. Read More »

CVS Health's MinuteClinic announced Tuesday that it has surpassed 25 million patients since opening in 2000. Read More »

Because smoking is the leading cause of preventable death and illness worldwide, most Medicine Shoppe and Medicap Pharmacy stores have pulled all tobacco and tobacco-related products from their shelves. Read More »

During the National Legislative Conference of the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), which concluded on Wednesday, independent pharmacists from across the country voiced support to increasing patient access to independent pharmacies. NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey said it is often independent pharmacies that serve areas deemed to be underserved, and that substantial obstacles exist for small health care providers. Read More »

The Council for Citizens Against Government Waste says controversial proposed bills on Capitol Hill would interfere with the market dynamics that have helped keep down costs while raising beneficiary satisfaction with Medicare Part D. Read More »

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) launched an advertising campaign on Tuesday to keep preferred pharmacy plans within Medicare plans.A proposed set of bills would disallow Medicare plans from creating pharmacy networks that are able to offer better prices over competitors. Read More »

ABC Laboratories Inc. was named a two-category winner in the 2015 Clinical Research Organization (CRO) Leadership Awards presented by Life Science Leader magazine and based on an annual survey of more than 2,300 industry executives to recognize service providers who were rated in the top 10 percent of CROs. Read More »