Is another fox being asked to guard the “hen house” ?

Posted on November 29, 2011 by Pharmaciststeve

http://seekingalpha.com/news-article/2089614-walgreens-senior-vice-president-jeffrey-kang-joins-ncqa-board-of-directors http://healthblog.steveariens.com/?p=230 http://healthblog.steveariens.com/?p=108 While I hate to use a few “isolated incidents” to point to a pattern, with seemingly no tracking/reporting of errors and or bogus rxs being filled by pharmacy in general and Walgreen in particular. To have a SVP from Walgreens appointed a group that is concerned about quality issues in medical care, […]

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Drive thru window – the new street corner pusher?

Posted on November 25, 2011 by Pharmaciststeve

http://www.delawareonline.com/article/20111125/NEWS01/111250334/Law-bans-drive-thru-pain-scripts Law bans drive-thru pain ‘scripts… In our continued war on drugs and its “fill & chase” program… the drive thru window has apparently become the new gateway to get bogus controlled substance Rxs past pharmacy staff. While apparently pharmacies have focused their digital security cameras to the inside of the store, monitoring the drive […]

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Even when you do your job right.. you can get sued

Posted on November 24, 2011 by Pharmaciststeve

http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2011/nov/24/court-ruling/ Imagine warning a patient that their new prescription is for a drug that your records note that they are allergic to. The patient denies being allergic to the drug and requests that you fill it. The patient takes the medication and DIES ! The patient’s family sues you and the chain that you work […]

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Is CMS helping insurers scam those on Medicare.

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Pharmaciststeve

It started back in 2006, the first year that Part D drug program was available for those on Medicare. Some of the insurers and major chains banded together and the insurers allowed – or charged them for doing so – the chains to put their logo on the insurer’s drug card. Leading some medicare folks […]

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Are we fighting a losing battle?

Posted on November 15, 2011 by Pharmaciststeve

http://prescriptions.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/11/14/study-finds-co-payments-discourage-drug-treatments/?seid=auto&smid=tw-nytimeshealth in a recent study, involving patients after hospitalization from a heart attack and being discharged… The study focused on the effect of the patents being compliant with their medications if the cost of their medications (co-pays) were removed from the equation. Historically, studies on compliance have indicated that roughly 33% of pts will remain […]

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Is Pharmacy headed for a “perfect storm” ?

Posted on November 12, 2011 by Pharmaciststeve

Those of us who have a very long hind-sight of the working of our profession, we should have seen this coming. At the beginning of my career, the average Rx price was $4 -$5, there was no such thing as a “drug card”, the number of available generics could be counted on one or two […]

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What you see is not necessarily what you get !

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Pharmaciststeve

How many times have you heard someone say that they don’t see/understand what a Pharmacist does? So customers – can’t call them patients – because all they seemed to be interested in is getting their Rx filled and leaving… probably treat the counter person at the fast food place better. Of course part of the […]

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So you think that the PMP (Prescription Monitoring Program) will help you find addicts/diverters?

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Pharmaciststeve

At one point in time, I thought that the PMP programs now in 30 odd states was a good idea. Healthcare professionals would have a database of those trying to obtain opiates & controlled substances from multiple prescribers and/or pharmacies. After roughly 10 yrs… some of the states are linking their individual databases so that […]

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Could this be Münchausen syndrome by proxy ?

Posted on November 3, 2011 by Pharmaciststeve

For those of you who don’t know what this is… here is a wikipedia link to explain it… http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M%C3%BCnchausen_syndrome_by_proxy United Health has been running this commercial http://www.youtube.com/user/UnitedHealthcare?v=8O1i0InZ8bM&feature=pyv&ad=15332119071&kw=united%20health According to the commercial.. this “fellow” ran into a pretty serious medical condition… UNITED HEALTH “noticed that the medication that he received from two different prescribers and filled […]

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If you think that the pharmacy boards are catatonic -this may be why

Posted on November 1, 2011 by Pharmaciststeve

In a report from USA TODAY (Dec 2008) they produced data that the vast majority of state pharmacy boards have chain pharmacy execs on them. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/health/2008-12-30-pharmacies-boards-mistakes-prescriptions_N.htm Could this at least partially explain why only three boards stopped Rite Aid’s 15 minute Rx guarantee or you get a gift card? Here is another example of this […]

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