PHARMACIST STEVE

Amid physician pressure, Walmart backs off plan to reject paper Rx https://www.ama-assn.org/practice-management/digital/amid-physician-pressure-walmart-backs-plan-reject-paper-rx What’s in the news: Walmart Inc., the world’s largest retailer, said it is delaying a previously announced move to mandate electronic prescriptions for controlled substances (EPCS) that was scheduled to begin Jan. 1, 2020. The AMA and other medical societies had been urging […]

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One of my readers asked me to write something how the following medication differ: Buprenorphine/(Subutex):  Is administered sublingual (Under the tongue) Buprenorphine/(Sublocade): administered as a SubQ injection monthly Buprenorphine/Naloxone (Suboxone): Administered sublingual/buccally film strip The common ingredient Buprenorphine interacts with three different opiate receptors (Delta, Mu,Kappa) and according to this article … there is NO […]

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Pharmacists receive extra training to prevent excess opioid prescriptions MEMPHIS, Tenn. (WMC) – A Memphis pharmacy company is making sure pharmacists are trained to fight the opioid epidemic by rolling out a new continuing education plan to stop addiction and spare lives. In 2018, during then-Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam’s administration Tennessee overhauled its prescribing laws […]

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Buprenorphine Conversions https://www.practicalpainmanagement.com/treatments/pharmacological/buprenorphine-conversions An update has been made to the PPM Opioid Calculator to remove conversions to and from buprenorphine. Here’s why. While the original launch of the free PPM online opioid calculator in 2012 did not include any conversions to or from buprenorphine due to its complex pharmacology and pharmacokinetics (see below), these conversions […]

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Mortality After Discontinuation of Primary Care–Based Chronic Opioid Therapy for Pain: a Retrospective Cohort Study https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11606-019-05301-2   This is a pretty long dissertation of this study, appears to be done in/around Seattle WASH in the early 2000’s. So I am not going to post the entire text of the study buy the above link will […]

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What CVS is doing to mom-and-pop pharmacies in the US will make your blood boil https://www.businessinsider.com/cvs-squeezing-us-mom-and-pop-pharmacies-out-of-business-2018-3   CVS Caremark, the in-house pharmacy benefit manager for CVS, has been accused of squeezing small pharmacies, driving some out of business. Lawmakers in Arkansas and Ohio have been quick to pass laws designed to end this by demanding […]

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         Sadly, this is one of several transplant patients that I have heard of whose life will be at risk over this weekend because their transplant medications will not arrive on time. It’s not against the law for #PBMs to risk lives as they force to their mail-order pharmacy. That’s how they make profits. […]

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How do insurers decide what medicines to pay for? https://stockdailydish.com/how-do-insurers-decide-what-medicines-to-pay-for/ How do insurers decide what medicines to pay for? How do insurance companies decide what medicines to pay for and when to pay for them? Insurers and other payers look first at how well the drug works – not its cost – when they decide […]

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Chronic Pain Survey Results Show Women Are Hurting http://nationalpainreport.com/chronic-pain-survey-results-show-women-are-hurting-8842345.html Posted on December 14, 2019 by Terri A Lewis, PhD. Editor’s Note: Terri Lewis, Ph.D. is a chronic pain advocate who, with the help of you, the readers of the National Pain Report, conducted one of the largest online surveys of chronic pain patients. She sent […]

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