Third one I am aware of this week – how many more we don’t know about ?

Posted on January 17, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve

RIP Gravestone

My Dear Pain Brothers and Sisters,
I write you this in my last stages of lung cancer. I want to thank all of you for your friendship and support. I wanted to give you a heads up that I will unable to respond to your wonderful sharing once I enter my coma, but I will carry our cause with me. All I’ve ever wanted is to get the laws changed to where no one has to suffer in needless pain again. After 29 years of pain, it’s hard to wrap my head around the fact I’ll finally be out of pain in just a week or so, but I pray you will be also by some of the work I’ve done. I go to our Creator to pray and beg for mercy for all of you. You have my love always.

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Financially attempting to taking out one chain pharmacy at a time over the opiate crisis

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve

Delaware top court says Rite Aid can’t get insurance coverage for opioid cases

https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/delaware-top-court-says-rite-aid-cant-get-insurance-coverage-opioid-cases-2022-01-10/

  • Delaware Supreme Court rules for Chubb in coverage lawsuit by Rite Aid
  • Court says Rite Aid only entitled to coverage in personal injury cases

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The Delaware Supreme Court on Monday ruled that insurance company Chubb Ltd is not required to provide coverage and defend Rite Aid Corp in lawsuits accusing the pharmacy chain operator of fueling the opioid epidemic.

The ruling came in one of several disputes nationwide involving pharmaceutical companies, drug distributors and pharmacies suing insurers in order to recoup the costs of defending against and settling thousands of opioid lawsuits.

A lower-court judge in 2020 found that various Chubb subsidiaries were required to defend Rite Aid against bellwether lawsuits by two Ohio counties in the federal multidistrict litigation over the epidemic.

But Delaware’s top court reversed, concluding that policies covering personal injury cases did not require Chubb to defend Rite Aid against lawsuits seeking only economic damages.

Rite Aid and its lawyer, Gerald Konkel of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, did not respond to requests for comment. Chubb and its lawyers, including Jonathan Hacker of O’Melveny & Myers, had no comment.

More than 3,000 lawsuits have been filed nationally by largely state and local governments seeking to hold the companies responsible for an opioid abuse crisis that has led to hundreds of thousands of overdose deaths.

The lawsuits accuse Rite Aid of negligently distributing addictive prescription pain pills. The company denies wrongdoing, and in 2019 sued Chubb to recover the costs of its defense and future settlements.

In Monday’s ruling, Chief Justice Collins Seitz, said that for Rite Aid to receive coverage, the lawsuits needed to be brought by people injured by opioids – individuals suing on their own behalf or anyone who cared for or treated them.

But in the case of Ohio’s Summit and Cuyahoga counties, which brought opioid claims similar to other local governments, they specifically said they were not seeking recovery for any residents’ personal injuries, Seitz said.

They instead sued to recover for injuries the counties suffered by being saddled with the economic burden of higher demands for medical treatment and impacts on their criminal justice systems, Seitz wrote for the 4-1 court.

“This claim is not directed to an individual injury but to a public health crisis,” Seitz said.

Justice James Vaughn dissented, saying Chubb’s policy language should be interpreted broadly to cover all damages an organization could bring against Rite Aid for the care, loss of services or death of someone due to opioid addiction.

The case is ACE American Insurance Co, v. Rite Aid Corp, Delaware Supreme Court, No. N19C-04-150.

For Chubb: Jonathan Hacker of O’Melveny & Myers

For Rite Aid: Gerald Konkel of Morgan, Lewis & Bockius

Read more:

State supreme court overturns broad bar against insurers suing over opioid coverage

Pharmacy chains including CVS helped fuel opioid epidemic, U.S. jury finds

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Another GIFT from the BIDEN ADMIN: At home-covid tests won’t be covered by Medicare

Posted on January 16, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve

At home-covid tests won’t be covered by Medicare

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/personalfinance/at-home-covid-tests-wont-be-covered-by-medicare/ar-AASFCPH

But millions of people—including the uninsured and those on Medicare—are not eligible to get tests reimbursed under this latest measure.

Medicare won’t cover at-home covid tests

Under the plan announced yesterday, people covered by private insurance or a group health plan will be able to purchase at-home rapid covid-19 tests for free or submit receipts to their insurer for reimbursement. US president Joe Biden’s administration also wants to incentivize insurers to work with preferred pharmacies and retailers to cover the costs of the tests up-front, rather than require patients to pay out of pocket.

 

It’s no secret that healthcare costs have skyrocketed in recent years. Between rising insurance premiums and a lack of pricing regulation for everything from lab work to prescriptions, medical costs have soared. Fortunately, there are some ways to cut medical costs before they send you into debt.

The new measure doesn’t include the estimated 31.1 million uninsured people living in the US, nor most of the 61.5 million (pdf) Americans enrolled in Medicare, the federal health insurance plan for seniors and people with disabilities. For now, they will have to rely on other types of covid testing covered by the government. Some Medicare Advantage plans, which are more comprehensive, may cover the cost of at-home tests.

Over the past two years the US government has offered covid-19 laboratory testing to most individuals—including the uninsured (pdf) and those on Medicare—at no cost. But even as more pharmacies began stocking rapid at-home covid tests, the federal government was slow to make them widely available. Though frequent testing is seen as an effective measure to contain coronavirus spread, rapid at-home covid tests in the US typically cost anywhere from $9 to $24, and have been going for as high as $80 as pharmacies battle supply-and-demand issues.

More people in the US should have access to free at-home rapid tests later this month, when the Biden administration has said it will make 500 million test kits available to anyone who wants them. The Department of Health and Human Services also says it’s providing up to 50 million at-home tests to community health centers and Medicare-certified health clinics to distribute to patients free of cost.

By the time these tests reach everyone who needs one, though, the first wave of the omicron variant will likely have already peaked. But at the very least, manufacturers and public health officials may now be better prepared for the next coronavirus variant.

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Another victim of the war on pts/drugs ?

Posted on January 15, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve

from Shasta

It is with great sadness that I have to share with all of you that our good friend and fellow activist, Lisa Pray has passed on. I was asked to let everyone know.
Lisa was always such a fun person to talk with, had a wonderful spirit and cared so very much about our community. Even though she struggled with her health, she never stopped working to raise awareness. She loved making her videos on TikTok and many of us learned so much from her. Her quest for the truth and her joy for activism was a joy to be around. I always appreciated her for giving us all a voice in her room she created “The Painful Truth”. She stood by her friends and her passion really shined through.

I miss you Lisa Pray. I can’t believe that I will never hear your voice again. Thank you for always being such a good friend to me.

 

RIP Gravestone

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very interesting video on gov surveillance on Medicare disabled people

Posted on January 15, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve

Barb is no longer on Medicare disability – she is just OLD NOW !… so this video is of no real interest to me… but this appears to be made by -maybe – an attorney firm DISABILITY RESOLUTION, PA

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OPERATION WARP SPEED: the horror stories are starting to see the light of day

Posted on January 15, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve

As far as I can tell the Astra Zeneca version of a COVID-19 vaccine was never approved by our FDA.  Because of the “bum’s rush” (operation warp speed) to get a COVID-19 vaccine to market – as I remember – the USA ordered 300-400 million doses prior to that vaccine even getting a FDA EUA (Emergency Use Authorization).  I remember hearing that we sent hundred of millions of doses to India or Pakistan when they had a huge outbreak.

Back in 2020-2021, I remember questioning putting a new medication on the market with < one year of clinical trials – a new med typically takes 10+ yrs to get thru all the appropriate clinical trials and on to the market place..

As part of this “operation warp speed”, Congress indemnified everyone involved in getting these vaccines to market – that they could not be sued for any harm/damages that these vaccines could/would cause.

This video suggests that there was not only some harm to many pts getting these vaccinations, but there may have been some sort of purging of “bad data” and pts with adverse events and the woman in this video read a “suicide letter” from one such pt who experienced such bad outcomes that life was no longer worth living.

I am sure there will be more coming to light in the near/far future.

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American Medical Association is asking for your denial of pain management stories

Posted on January 15, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve

https://youtu.be/iGjKHrD1OW0

American Medical Association is asking for your stories. We If you have had problems obtaining proper or any dose of opiate pain medicines. AMA wants to know.

If you have had limitations on your pain medications by pharmacists, insurance companies, ER’s, after surgery or by any doctors NP’s or who ever trying to limiting opioid pain medications including tapering and being cut off.

send your BRIEF story to AMA to be counted. see email address below

Yes, I retired but one last video, it wore me out, back to my canoe

Your report needs your name (or the name of a representative, if you are shy), city, state, zip, no address or phone. plus – your primary diagnosis, just 1, what happened to you 1-3 sentences and what medicines were involved( if just a denial to treat AT ALL put “opiate pain medicine”) add the insurance company if they were a problem and thats all. Make it brief they are just counting. Maybe add “suspend cdc guidelines” if u want. Tell friends. spread the word!

EMail report to:
opioidtaskforce@ama-assn.org

They have said they want to hear from as many as possible. JUST DO IT! easy, they are primarily counting

Help get others do this, it is ok if if the sick person cannot do it.

Speak up, someone is listening, doctors not the government.
National Pain Council supports this effort
National Pain Council.org

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PBM’S: Going to make it rough for people to get new antiviral meds

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve

The feds are providing this medication at NO CHARGE to community pharmacies and apparently the PBM’s have established a pharmacy reimbursement to fill these medications for pts at a  ONE WHOLE DOLLAR.  Years ago, when I was actively practicing pharmacy  it was claimed that the business overhead in providing/filling a Rx for pts cost abt $12 EACH.  But I retired in 2013, and part of that $12 cost would be the cost of carrying and insuring inventory, so that cost would/could be subtracted from that $12 cost, but NINE YEARS have passed since I last practiced, so nearly a TEN YEAR inflation, would most likely pushed that $12 cost back in 2013 would be much above that $12 dollar figure today.   Just last month the current inflation for Dec 2021 was pushing TEN PERCENT on a annualized basis.   Of course,  the PBM industry has always fought financial transparency and if the numbers on this program are eventually leaked…I would not be surprised to see the PBM’s administration cost could be $20- $30 per Rx – charged back to the federal program.  I would not be surprised that many pharmacies will just “be out of stock” of these two new anti-viral… I doubt that pharmacy software drug to drug interactions system will not be fully updated and I suspect that there is going to be a lot of drug-drug interactions that were not uncovered under the brief clinical trials under the EUA (Emergency Use Authorization).  The Pfizer anti-viral version is known to have many serious drug to drug interactions and possible many undocumented drug to comorbidity health issues and the Pfizer med is reported to be nearly 3 times more effective than the Merck version.

 

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reporter from KSDK is looking for pharmacy employees to speak out anonymously about hazardous working conditions.

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve

***Saint Louis region (MO / IL) ***

Please feel free to pass this along to any pharmacy employees, Rphs, etc you may know. A local reporter from KSDK is looking for pharmacy employees to speak out anonymously about hazardous working conditions. Her name is Allie Corey with KSDK and she can be reached via @alexandracorey on FB.

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Everyday: are you putting your health/life into healthcare providers who are “NOT AT THEIR BEST ” ?

Posted on January 14, 2022 by Pharmaciststeve

Wednesday was National Pharmacist Day, and one Georgia pharmacist described the feelings of burnout many in her profession are feeling.

https://www.13wmaz.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/pharmacist-burnout-covid-19/85-d8902656-da59-4576-afd9-2b202543757d

ATLANTA — COVID-19 brought a wave of burnout among physicians and other health professionals – while nurses and doctors are feeling the elevated stress and staffing shortages in the wake of the new omicron variant, they’re not the only ones feeling overwhelmed.

Pharmacists were seeing high burnout levels from their profession long before the COVID-19 pandemic.  As the pandemic has continued, the situation has only worsened. 

“Pharmacists have been dealing with this for a long time and COVID just took it to another level,” said Shirin Zadeh, pharmacist and president of the Atlanta region at the Pharmacy Association of Georgia.  

In 2017 pharmacists reported higher rates of burnout in practice than surgeons, oncologists, and emergency-medicine practitioners. Right before the start of the pandemic, a 2020 study found 75% of pharmacists reported burnout. 

RELATED: Georgia receiving initial, small numbers of new antiviral pills to treat COVID patients

The stress pharmacists are under can lead to mistakes in prescriptions, which can cause hospitalizations or even cost somebody’s life, said Zadeh. 

The Pharmacy Association of Georgia, a pharmacist union, currently has 1,500 pharmacists and 537 pharmacy technicians. 

Of those, 301 pharmacists and 88 of the technicians are under Zadeh’s supervision in the Atlanta region. 

“I have so many pharmacists coming to me saying, ‘I just need a new job. I don’t care if I’m a pharmacist anymore. This is just not what I want to do with my life, because basically, I don’t have a life anymore,'” said Zadeh. 

According to the U.S  Bureau of Labor Statistics, about 11,300 openings for pharmacists are projected each year, on average, over the decade. All of these openings are expected to result from the need to replace workers who transfer to other occupations or exit the labor force, such as to retire.

The pharmacists under Zadeh in the Atlanta region feel like it’s impossible to get anything done and they come to her with these concerns. COVID-19 has forced them to quickly adapt to ever-changing regulations and practices. 

“Hey, if we get these new guidelines every day, we get all these things that we need to do. Every news station says, ‘Oh, go to your pharmacy and get your immunization.’ Then we wake up and they say, ‘Oh, you have to do this many shots today.’ We go to work and how am I supposed to finish everything that I was doing. And top of that do immunizations,” said Zadeh. 

Pharmacists are thinking about their patients’ safety when they decide to leave the field, according to Zadeh. 

“Not only do they tired feel, but they feel unsafe for their patients. They think this is somebody’s mom, this is somebody’s dad, this is somebody’s kids and I’m not 100% and I don’t have time to look at their profile, go to their medication history because I’m the only one here and I have so many things to do,” said Zadeh. 

It’s better for pharmacists to leave before someone gets hurt, she added.

The mindset, Zadeh said, is: “I’m going to get my license and I don’t want to kill someone, so I’m just going to leave.”

Zadeh wants everyone to know and value their pharmacist for the services they provide, both during the pandemic and under normal circumstances. 

‘Pharmacists are the most trusted health care workers, they are everybody’s first phone call, the first person that the patient goes to ask for medical advice is their pharmacist. They’re just available, accessible all the time,” said Zadeh. 

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