Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBMs) are continuing to fight against state regulation. On Tuesday, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) filed a new brief with the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals in opposition to North Dakota Century Code sections 16.1 and 16.2. In 2017, the North Dakota passed legislation to regulate PBM practices including limiting the …
Continue reading “PBM’s Continue Fight Against State Regulation”
Prop 207: Can My Marijuana Conviction be Expunged in Arizona? In November of 2020, the citizens of Arizona voted to approve Proposition 207 which legalized private, recreational cannabis use. Proposition 207 also included provisions in which people with certain marijuana criminal charges could petition the court to get the convictions expunged from their records. Having …
Continue reading “Prop 207 : Marijuana Expungements in Arizona”
Purchasing your own pharmacy can be wonderful opportunity to flex your entrepreneurial muscles, while providing the best for your patients. Indeed, the notion of being your own boss, being able to practice pharmacy in the way that you think is best, and increasing your earning potential are all good, sound reasons to consider buying your …
Continue reading “Looking to Buy a Pharmacy? Be Sure to Do Your Due Diligence”
PBM Audits commonly review prescription hard copies, signature/delivery logs, drug invoice purchases, proof of copayment collection, proof of prescriber/patient relationship, patient consent to fill, and non-resident state licensure. PBM Audits are just one of the many hurdles your pharmacy will inevitably face while you strive to serve patients. Poor audit findings lead to extensive financial …
Pharmacies are plagued by the burdens of addressing the terms of their pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) agreements, whether those terms are reasonable or not. Pharmacies are dogged with PBMs wielding their power by initiating a PBM audit – sometimes to root out actual discrepancies, sometimes to injure your business in favor of the PBM’s own affiliated …
The Arizona State Board has announced an emerging new scam designed to access your money via a transfer of funds request. The scammers claim to be calling from the Arizona State Board of Pharmacy and have even managed to “spoof” some of the Board’s telephone numbers, lending credence to their false claims. Once they have …
How Saving a Patient Money can Cost Your Pharmacy the Entire Paid Claim Amount or Worse, Your Pharmacy’s PBM Contract. Most who have worked in a pharmacy for some time can remember the Purple Pill Card, the Nexium Savings Coupon with the catchy name and bright purple colors. Not only did this program have catchy …
Continue reading “Patient Copayments and the Use of Manufacturer Coupons”
Many PBMs relaxed the requirements on signature logs for both in person and delivered medications due to the Covid-19 Pandemic. Some PBMs even allowed mailed prescriptions when otherwise prohibited. While the ease in restrictions made providing patients with their medications easier, the PBMs retained the right to audit signature logs regardless of the lifted restrictions. …
Billing of Aberrant NDCs Beginning in January of 2020, at least one of the major PBMs began monitoring its network pharmacies for the billing of specific NDC numbers the PBM considered “Aberrant”. The list of NDCs was sent to network pharmacies in November of 2019 and has since been updated in November of 2020. The …
With the national conversation discussing a Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) that is often highly politicized and characterized as divided, it should be comforting to the independent pharmacy community to know that SCOTUS issued a unanimous, 8-0 (Justice Barrett did not participate in this decision) decision in the case of Rutledge v. PCMA. …
Continue reading “Supreme Court Victory for States and Independent Pharmacies”