MPA | Pharmacy News

DELTA TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Wednesday signed bipartisan bills into law that are designed to reduce prescription drug costs by regulating pharmacy benefit managers that oversee coverage for employers, insurers and others. Parts of the laws took effect immediately while others, including licensing requirements and bans on “spread pricing” and “gag...

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Johnson & Johnson has temporarily suspended production of its COVID-19 vaccine while it pursues a potentially lucrative vaccine for respiratory syncytial virus, which takes the lives of approximately 14,000 older adults in America each year. U.S. officials acknowledge that the company was transparent about its plans for the facility in Leiden, the Netherlands, from the start — plans that...

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CMS Developing Initiative to Enable Access to Eight Free Over-the-Counter COVID-19 Tests for Medicare Beneficiaries in Early Spring   As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s ongoing efforts to expand Americans’ access to free testing, people in either Original Medicare or Medicare Advantage will be able to get over- the-counter COVID-19 tests at no cost starting in earl...

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High-risk Covid-19 patients could see reduced access to Pfizer and Merck’s antiviral pills without a federal mandate that insurers pay pharmacies for dispensing the medications, industry groups and analysts say. Pharmacy groups argue the Medicare agency should require minimum insurance payments for the tasks involved with distributing the at-home treatments, including conducting risk asse...

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Relentless pressure, extra tasks, and depleted ranks lead to widespread burnout.   Jennifer Morrow says she first considered quitting her job as a pharmacist at a CVS drugstore near Binghamton, N.Y., last October after she was assigned to fill in at a store she’d rarely worked in. When she arrived, she discovered she’d be the only pharmacist on the job all day—with no ...

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