Surescripts Expands Network to Provide Clinical Messaging Capabilities for Users of Four Health Technology Vendors

ARLINGTON, Va. - JULY 23, 2013 - Surescripts, the nation's largest health information network, continues to expand its reach by enabling four additional health technology vendors to offer clinical messaging capabilities to their users. Surescripts' messaging and communications product for clinical interoperability will now be offered to users of Greenway, Inofile, SCI Solutions, and SOAPware.  These enhanced capabilities will allow healthcare providers to seamlessly communicate and share important clinical information through a secure and integrated messaging service powered by the Surescripts network.

"Clinical messaging enables the safe and timely exchange of electronic health information across rapidly evolving healthcare communities," said Jeff Miller, Senior Vice President and General Manager of Clinical Interoperability for Surescripts.  "We are thrilled to expand our network reach to include these leading organizations and to provide innovative solutions to improve overall care and patient outcomes."

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Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Company Announces New Rates for Individual Pharmacist Professional Liability Coverage – Most Members to Receive Lower Premium

After a comprehensive review of their claims experience, Pharmacists Mutual Insurance Company has begun filing new rates for its Individual Pharmacist Professional Liability coverage.  Thomas Claude, Sr. Vice President of Underwriting and Product Development, commented that “Our overarching goals are to ensure we can honor the promises we make by charging adequate rates, provide excellent service to our members, and minimize as much as possible cross subsidies between members with different risk profiles.”

As a result, Pharmacists Mutual is introducing new rate classes for individuals performing sterile compounding.  Members not performing sterile compounding will receive a modest reduction in premium.  Members performing sterile compounding will see a rate increase to reflect the higher risk inherent in their practice.

The current rate for employed pharmacists in Iowa is $144.  The new rates will be $139 for members not performing sterile compounding and $299 for members engaged in sterile compounding.

The new rates have been approved in Iowa effective August 1 for new policies and October 1 for renewals. The new structure will be rolled out across the country in the next few months.

An exclusion for sterile compounding will be added to policies receiving the lower rate.  Members receiving this rate whose practice includes sterile compounding should contact Pharmacists Mutual and request a policy change.

Pharmacists Mutual expects a significant majority of its members will benefit from the lower rate.

For more information, contact Pharmacists Mutual at 515.295.2461. 

Survey of Community Pharmacies Impact of Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) Contracting and Auditing Practices on Patient Care

The Medicare Prescription Drug Program Integrity and Transparency Act (S. 867) was recently introduced by U.S. Senators Mark Pryor (D-Ark.) and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) and would establish reasonable parameters around pharmacy audits and require regular updates to maximum allowable cost (MAC) lists and generic reimbursement in Part D.

While Part D pharmacy audits are necessary to detect fraud and abuse, PBMs are abusing this process by singling out expensive drugs and targeting typographical errors in order to recoup significant amounts of money that are in turn not turned over to the Medicare program. Also, pharmacies are typically forced to sign contracts with Part D plans and/or PBMs without any disclosure of the terms and conditions surrounding reimbursement for generic drugs. Increasingly, pharmacies are being paid below their costs to dispense and the Maximum Allowable Cost (MAC) lists are not updated on a regular basis in order to reflect generic drug spikes.

In order to provide lawmakers with the scope of the challenges faced by independent community pharmacies with regard to audits and MAC pricing in Part D, please respond to the following survey. Your responses will help to bolster NCPA advocacy efforts with regard to S. 867—a bill that would make fundamental changes with regard to audits and MAC pricing in Part D.

Immunization Action Coalition May 2013 Issue of Needle Tips

The Immunization Action Coalition (IAC) has recently released its May 2013 issue of Needle Tips, for healthcare professionals who administer vaccines.  Also available is Vaccinate Adults, a shortened version of Needle Tips,modified for those who work only with adult patients. Both are now available for downloading, printing, and reading.

Here are links directly to the PDFs of the publications: Needle Tips and Vaccinate Adults.

These publications contain ready-to-print educational materials for healthcare professionals and their patients, vaccine news highlights, and IAC’s popular “Ask the Experts” Q&A column with answers by CDC experts Andrew Kroger, MD, MPH; Donna Weaver, RN, MN; and Iyabode Akinsanya-Beysolow, MD, MPH.

Needle Tips and Vaccinate Adults are available exclusively online. Current and past issues of Needle Tips are available at www.immunize.org/nt and Vaccinate Adults at www.immunize.org/va.

To receive direct notification when new issues are published, subscribe at www.immunize.org/subscribe.  On this page, you can also subscribe to IAC’s free weekly email news service, IAC Express, which keeps you up to date on immunization news between issues of IAC’s periodicals.

PQA Endorses Two New Performance Measures

Springfield, VA - June 7, 2013 -  PQA announced the endorsement by its membership of two new performance measures during a vote on May 29th at the PQA Annual Meeting & Best Practices Forum.  The new measures are:  Adherence to Non-Warfarin Oral Anticoagulants Antipsychotic Use in Children Under 5 Years Old The measure, Adherence to Non-Warfarin Oral Anticoagulants, addresses the percentage of patients 18 years and older who met the Proportion of Days Covered (PDC) threshold of 80 percent during the measurement period for the non-warfarin oral anticoagulants apixaban, dabigatran and rivaroxaban.  Adherence to all anticoagulants is important to decrease risk of stroke, pulmonary embolism and DVT.  This measure addresses an important safety concern because adherence to these new drugs cannot be monitored through a surrogate lab value, such as INR.  The half-life of these medications is short (in comparison to warfarin), so adherence to these non-warfarin anticoagulants may be more critical to monitor.

Heparin Label Changes: Are Your Patients At Risk?

To prevent medication errors, the U.S. Pharmacopeial Convention (USP) revised the label standard for two heparin products: Heparin Sodium Injection, USP and Heparin Lock Flush Solution, USP (including pre-filled heparin flush syringes). As a result, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is requiring manufacturers to change the labels of these products.

Instead of prominently listing the total content of the entire container, previous labels for these multiple-dose vials showed the per-dose volume. To prevent dosing errors, the new labels display the container’s full volume, with the per-dose strength in close proximity. You can learn more and view a side-by-side comparison of the labels in this FDA Drug Safety Communication.

Label images courtesy of FDA

These changes took effect May 1, 2013, so you may already see the label changes in new stock. USP recommends the following steps to protect patients during this label transition:

Community Pharmacy Goes Digital

Alexandria, Va. - The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) and RxWiki, Inc., the leading pharmacy media network, announced today a new partnership that will offer digital solutions to over 23,000 community pharmacies across the country. Through this strategic partnership, NCPA will incorporate RxWiki's Digital Pharmacist™ offering as a new, cost-free benefit for its members. The Digital Pharmacist suite includes website, social media, and mobile solutions for pharmacists to deliver medication information to patients.
"With pharmacists becoming more involved in the delivery and management of patient care, there is a valuable opportunity for greater collaboration with patients to improve overall health outcomes," said NCPA President Donnie Calhoun, RPh, a pharmacy owner in Anniston, Ala.

Raise Awareness About Mental Health

May is Mental Health Month. This year’s theme, Pathways to Wellness —calls attention to strategies and approaches that help all Americans achieve wellness and good mental and overall health. Just as you check your patients’ blood pressure and recommend appropriate screenings, it's a good idea to take periodic readings of their emotional well-being also. Medicare provides payment for several services that can help you check your patients’ emotional well-being.

Mental Health Services Payable by Medicare:

Depression Screening: Medicare covers annual screening for adults for depression in the primary care setting that have staff-assisted depression care supports in place to assure accurate diagnosis, effective treatment, and follow-up.

Putting Too Much in Company Stock

Putting Too Much in Company Stock. 

A classic mistake that can come back to haunt you.

Have you invested too much of your 401(k) in company stock? This can happen – and you may not be fully aware of it.

Back when corporations offered traditional pension plans, the federal government watched out for this tendency. In 1974, the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) made it illegal for pension plans to invest more than 10% of their assets in company shares. These days, the employee-directed 401(k) is the default workplace retirement plan – but ERISA doesn’t limit the amount of 401(k) assets that can be directed into company stock. 1

National Public Awareness Campaign on Medication Adherence Honoring Leaders in Multi-Professional Student Challenge

Second annual Script Your Future contest saw participation by 1,700 future health care professionals, 200 events in 35 states, and reaching more than 3 million consumers nationwide Washington, DC — Today, the National Consumers League (NCL) and its partners announced the awardees of the second annual Script Your Future Medication Adherence Team Challenge for health profession students. This month-long competition engaged health profession students and faculty in developing creative ideas for raising awareness about medication adherence as a critical public health issue. This year's awardees are: St. Louis College of Pharmacy, University of Charleston School of Pharmacy, University of the Pacific Thomas J. Long School of Pharmacy & Health Sciences, Touro University College of Pharmacy California, and The University of Mississippi School of Pharmacy.