Abarca executives see plenty of potential for new technologies but note the need to strike the right balance between tech and human intervention.

The post How AI and Machine Learning Can Transform Pharmacy Benefits Management appeared first on MedCity News.

Plenful has completed a $17 million Series A funding round, bringing its total fundraising amount to date to more than $25 million. The startup offers a software platform that automates the manual and administrative tasks that burden pharmacists and pharmacy technicians.

The post Plenful Raises $17M to Help Curb Rising Levels of Pharmacy Burnout appeared first on MedCity News.

Tracey James, chief operating officer of Walgreens’ specialty pharmacy business, talked about the retailer’s vision of innovating in the specialty pharmacy world, as well as about affordability and access.

The post MedCity Pivot Podcast: A Conversation With Walgreens’ Head of Specialty Drugs appeared first on MedCity News.

Dan Reedy, senior director of pricing and underwriting for Abarca, spoke recently with MedCity News about what payers should consider as they explore new models and press for greater transparency.

The post Unlocking Transparency in PBM Pricing appeared first on MedCity News.

The dangers of polypharmacy and its increasingly wide reach across the American population make it imperative that we enhance the accuracy and efficiency of medication reconciliation processes.

The post It’s Past Time to Prevent Polypharmacy in U.S. Healthcare appeared first on MedCity News.

We must realign the financial incentives and democratize access through data sharing. Pharma needs to lead the charge, but employers and pharmacies must also be agents of change. Here’s how we can do it.

The post An Ohio Pharmacy Was Fined $250K. It Represents Everything Wrong With the Prescription Drug Industry. appeared first on MedCity News.

Walgreens announced that it is expanding its specialty pharmacy offerings. Experts think that this move could yield several strategic benefits, given the higher profit margins associated with specialty medications compared to traditional drugs. They also think Walgreens’ move could lead to greater competition, consolidation and innovation within the broader pharmacy industry.

The post How Will Walgreens’ Expansion into Specialty Pharmacy Affect the Industry? appeared first on MedCity News.

Atlantic Health System announced that it is adopting FeelBetter’s technology for polypharmacy patient management. The health system is now using the startup’s personalized medication management platform across its three ACOs.

The post Atlantic Health System Deploys Tech to Better Manage Polypharmacy Patients appeared first on MedCity News.

Here is a selection of recent executive hires, promotions and layoffs occurring across the healthcare industry.

The post Healthcare Moves: A Monthly Summary of Hires and Layoffs appeared first on MedCity News.

A CPO in the C-suite determines how a health system can move from a cost center to a revenue center with healthy operating margins by investing in specialty pharmacy services that reduce burden for healthcare staff and improve care for patients.

The post Why Every Hospital Needs a Chief Pharmacy Officer in the C-Suite appeared first on MedCity News.

In a webinar last week, BuildMyHealth CEO and Co-founder Dr. Jonathan Kaplan shared how physician practices not only can access the weight loss drug by working with compounding pharmacies, but also use BuildMyHealth to provide this drug to their own patients who are suitable candidates for the drug.

The post Build My Health Webinar Highlights New Age for Physician Practices with Rise of GLP1 Drugs for Obesity appeared first on MedCity News.

The aftermath the cyberattack on Change Healthcare remains messy, with patients across the country still struggling to obtain their prescriptions. The federal government has even stepped in to help address the fallout of the attack, urging payers to quickly alleviate the digital bottlenecks that providers and pharmacies are facing.

The post Answering 7 Key Questions About Change Healthcare’s Cyberattack appeared first on MedCity News.

In an interview at the Vive conference in Los Angeles, John Couris said that while he is sympathetic toward Change Healthcare’s current woes, he wants definitive answers soon.

The post Tampa General Hospital CEO on Change Healthcare Breach: They Are Going To Have To Give an Update Soon appeared first on MedCity News.

Pharmacies across the country are facing disruptions following a cyberattack on Change Healthcare — which is owned by Optum, a subsidiary of UnitedHealth Group. In a filing with the SEC, UnitedHealth stated that the unauthorized party that gained access to Change Healthcare’s systems was a “suspected nation-state associated cyber security threat actor.”

The post ‘Nation-State’ Cyberattack Hits Change Healthcare, Disrupting Pharmacy Services Across the Country appeared first on MedCity News.

In the same way that airbags were a natural evolution of vehicle safety technology, seamless, RFID-based systems are the next evolution of medication management technology.

The post Medication Management Technology Puts Patient Safety at the Center of Care appeared first on MedCity News.

In 61% of counties with a PCP shortage, there is a high volume of retail pharmacies. It reveals an opportunity for pharmacists, who have the education and training, and are already providing vaccinations, tests and frontline treatments to amplify the impact they can have on providing accessible care in the communities they serve.

The post Technology as a Cure: Alleviating Clinician Burnout, Empowering Pharmacists to Fill Care Gaps This Cold and Flu Season appeared first on MedCity News.

New research found that there are no racial disparities in weight loss results among patients taking obesity drugs. However, the study found that people of color have less access to services like behavioral care or surgical interventions, which are often needed in order for patients to lose weight and keep it off. To tackle this issue, Enara Health CEO Rami Bailony argued that the U.S. healthcare system must innovate the way it dispenses weight loss drugs, employing a more holistic care approach.

The post Why One CEO Thinks Drugs Won’t Be Able to Solve the Obesity Crisis appeared first on MedCity News.

Walgreens has agreed to pay Humana $360 million to settle a drug pricing dispute that has spanned nearly five years. The payout is roughly half of what Walgreens was originally ordered to pay when the issue was first resolved last year.

The post Walgreens to Pay Humana $360M to Settle Claims It Overcharged for Drugs appeared first on MedCity News.

Javier Gonzalez, Chief Growth and Commercial Officer at Abarca, about why payers are increasingly looking for alternatives to the traditional PBM model. 

The post The PBM Model of the Future: Why Payers Are Unbundling PBM Services appeared first on MedCity News.

Researchers recently tested ChatGPT’s ability to answer patient questions about medication, finding that the AI model gave wrong or incomplete answers about 75% of the time. Providers should be wary of the fact that the model does not always give sound medical advice, given many of their patients could be turning to ChatGPT to answer health-related questions.

The post ChatGPT Does a Bad Job of Answering People’s Medication Questions, Study Finds appeared first on MedCity News.

It’s easy to get caught up in the excitement surrounding innovations in the medical field, Amazon Pharmacy Chief Medical Officer Dr. Vin Gupta noted. But when talking about these innovations, healthcare leaders often fail to address questions about whether they will be covered by insurance and whether all patients will be able to benefit from them, he pointed out.

The post Amazon Exec: We Love Innovation, But We Don’t Love to Talk About Who Pays for It appeared first on MedCity News.

We should strive for a future where patients have easy and affordable access to medications, supported on their journey by trusted pharmacy professionals who are an integral part of their care team.

The post Patients Should Be at the Center of Pharmacy Care. Why Aren’t They? appeared first on MedCity News.

Proposals targeting misaligned financial incentives, price transparency, and pharmacy access are important and necessary reforms. But the consequences of failing to address pharmacy benefit managers’ use of market power to block competition and extract monopoly profits from payers and consumers will not be limited to drug costs – it will change all of healthcare for generations.

The post PBMs Are in Regulators’ Crosshairs But Are Regulators Missing the Point? appeared first on MedCity News.

Walgreens is seeing “an enormous amount of demand” for injectable weight loss drugs, its president of U.S. healthcare said during the Reuters Total Health conference in Chicago. He declared that the healthcare industry needs to come up with a reimbursement model “that correctly compensates pharmacists and others” to administer these drugs. In his view, reimbursement hasn’t caught up with the demand.

The post Walgreens Exec: Reimbursement Models Need to Catch Up with GLP-1 Demand appeared first on MedCity News.

In an interview, Surescripts’ Clinical Product Advisor Cecelia Byers shared how the company is working to simplify prescribing and obtaining specialty medications.

The post How Tech is Saving Time for Specialty Pharmacies and Improving the Patient Experience appeared first on MedCity News.

San Francisco-based Plenful emerged from stealth on Tuesday. The startup sells a workflow tool that automates manual and administrative workflows for pharmacy technicians. In addition to its launch out of stealth mode, the company also announced that it has closed a $9 million funding round led by Bessemer Venture Partners and signed contracts with more than 20 customers.

The post Pharmacy Automation Startup Emerges From Stealth With 20+ Customers And $9M Raised appeared first on MedCity News.

Increasingly, patients in the U.S. look to Canada for more affordable prescription options since the Canadian government regulates drug costs. Some companies have noticed and are beginning to capitalize on the demand.

The post US Prescription Drug Costs More Than Double Those in Canada appeared first on MedCity News.

The second quarter of 2023 ended with 309 active drug shortages, the highest total in nearly a decade, according to a new report from ASHP. One of the organization’s executives pointed out that drug shortages have two major impacts on health systems: they create a lot of extra work for the pharmacy department, and they force clinicians to make tough decisions about patient care that could potentially result in worse patient outcomes.

The post Drug Shortages Not Only Exacerbate Healthcare Burnout But Can Also Harm Patient Care appeared first on MedCity News.

Hospitals’ pharmacy spending is projected to rise by 3.42% next year, according to a new report. Specialty drugs, including Ozempic and Humira, as well as neurology medications are the primary drivers of this increase in pharmacy expenses.

The post Which Drugs Are Driving Next Year’s 3.42% Increase in Hospital Pharmacy Spend? appeared first on MedCity News.

Even as value-based care finds its footing and expands further, team-based approaches to care delivery incorporating pharmacists as crucial connections are already bearing results—helping provider organizations achieve 5-star CMS ratings for medication adherence, driving down costs, and driving up the quality of life for patients.

The post Prescribing Change for the Impact Pharmacists Can Make in Healthcare appeared first on MedCity News.