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Long-term Antidepressant Use Tied to an Increase in CVD, Mortality Risk https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/981951 Long-term antidepressant use is tied to an increased risk of adverse outcomes, including cardiovascular disease (CVD), cerebrovascular disease (CV), coronary heart disease (CHD), and all-cause mortality, new research suggests. Investigators drew on 10-year data from the UK Biobank on over 220,000 adults and […]
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DOJ sues Cigna for exaggerating patient illnesses https://www.healthcaredive.com/news/doj-sues-cigna-healthcare-fraud-patient-diagnoses/634340/ The Department of Justice is suing Cigna over allegations it defrauded the Medicare program out of tens of millions of dollars by exaggerating patient illnesses to obtain increased monthly payments. The exaggerated diagnoses were based on in-home assessment forms — not the testing or imaging required to […]
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CMS Puts the Kibosh on Misleading Medicare Advantage Sales Pitches https://www.medpagetoday.com/special-reports/exclusives/101348 “Secret shoppers” found that 80% of agent calls with clients were inaccurate or insufficient After reviewing thousands of complaints about “confusing, misleading, and/or inaccurate” Medicare Advantage ads, and using “secret shoppers” to document deceptive telephone sales pitches, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services […]
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5 myths about using Suboxone to treat opiate addiction https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/5-myths-about-using-suboxone-to-treat-opiate-addiction-2018032014496 What is Suboxone and how does it work? Suboxone, a combination medication containing buprenorphine and naloxone, is one of the main medications used to treat opioid addiction. Using ‘medications for opioid use disorder’ is known as MOUD. Use of MOUD has been shown to lower […]
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Tricare is health insurance for active/retired members of our armed services and many US government employees. Tricare changed their PBM’s to Express Scripts and they sent out contracts that provided reimbursements to – at least – independent pharmacies that was BELOW THE COST OF WHAT PHARMACIES HAD TO PAY TO PURCHASE THE MEDICATION FROM THEIR […]
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per the CDC: Between 1999 and 2020, according to the CDC, more than 564,000 people in the U.S. fatally overdosed from prescription and illicit opioids… what we do know, that starting in abt 2012, opiate Rxs started to decline each year going forward. Wouldn’t it be interesting if they put the PER-CENT of the OD’s […]
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what I find interesting in this court issue is… what they are talking about is “off-label” prescribing… in which day in and day out… off label prescribing is a significant percent of all prescriptions filled. But “they” seemed to dance around and side-step around the very issue of off-label prescribing. Off labeling prescribing typically has […]
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Pharmacist sued for confiscating patient’s prescription https://www.pharmacytoday.org/article/S1042-0991(20)30963-4/fulltext#relatedArticles Judicial opinions can be frustrating when the judge authoring the opinion has not provided sufficient factual information. That is particularly true of this month’s case. The court’s description of the facts may lead one to believe, and actually hope, that an important fact has been left out of […]
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Thumbs Down for Genetic Test for Opioid Use Disorder, FDA Advisors Say False positives, false negatives remain a concern https://www.medpagetoday.com/painmanagement/opioids/101359 An FDA advisory committee on Thursday voted strongly against AvertD, a prescription genetic risk assessment tool for opioid use disorder (OUD). In an 11-2 decision, the Clinical Chemistry and Clinical Toxicology Devices Advisory Committee said […]
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https://youtu.be/RFazRe7TMAk
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