Building on the passage of pharmacy-specific provisions in the new healthcare reform law, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) and National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) announced their strong endorsement of the Medication Therapy Management Expanded Benefits Act of 2010, authored and introduced by U.S. Senator Kay Hagan (D-NC) today. Senator Al Franken (D-MN) is an original cosponsor of the bill.

The bill aims to enhance pharmacist-provided medication therapy management (MTM) services – first codified into law in the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003 – for Medicaid and Medicare beneficiaries by opening MTM services to patients suffering with any chronic condition or disease.More »

Electronic health record systems likely will soon become a fixture in medical settings. Advocates claim they will reduce health care costs and improve medical outcomes, which could be critical since the new health care reform law increases access for millions of Americans. Although benefits of bringing information technology to health records can be substantial, EHR systems also give rise to increased liability risks for health care providers due to possible software or hardware problems or user errors.

Two Case Western Reserve University professors, in a scholarly article published in the Berkeley Technology Law Journal, shed light on liability concerns and electronic health records systems. Until now, such a linkage has received little attention in the legal literature.More »

CVS Caremark Corporation announced that, while it has worked diligently to come to terms with Walgreens on an agreement that would allow Walgreens to continue as a member of the CVS Caremark PBM pharmacy network, it has no choice but to terminate Walgreens' participation in its retail pharmacy networks effective 30 days from today, or as otherwise may be required by applicable law or contract requirements. In addition, CVS Caremark will terminate Walgreens' participation in its Medicare Part D retail pharmacy networks effective January 1, 2011. CVS Caremark said that Walgreens' most recent actions have violated the terms of its existing agreements and that Walgreens has failed to respond to efforts by CVS Caremark to continue business negotiations.More »

Following more than ten years of advocacy, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) today applauded the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) for issuing its interim final rule allowing for the electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS). This is the first time ever that there can be a coordinated e-prescribing system for both controlled and non-controlled prescription medication. The prior inability to utilize e-prescribing for controlled substances frequently was reported as a major barrier to physician adoption of e-prescribing.More »