Articles related to Pharmacy (Managed Care)

Across 14 health-system specialty pharmacies, pharmacist interventions were associated with an estimated $3.6 million in avoided medication costs over six months. The analysis used a structured attribution method to assess the likelihood that individual interventions altered treatment trajectories.

Medicare’s new GLP-1 Bridge Program expands lower-cost access to certain weight-loss medications for eligible beneficiaries. Concurrent ISMP guidance outlines common medication errors and counseling challenges as more patients initiate GLP-1 therapy.

ASHP urged HRSA in a June 2 letter to take immediate enforcement action against Eli Lilly after the manufacturer gave an initial group of 340B-covered entities five business days to submit detailed claims-level data or lose access to discounted pricing across its full drug portfolio, including in-house hospital pharmacy dispensing and medically administered products; as of mid-June, the threatened cutoffs had not yet taken effect for many affected entities.

The American College of Physicians issued a living clinical guideline recommending semaglutide and tirzepatide as first-line pharmacologic treatments with lifestyle modifications for nonpregnant adults with obesity (BMI 30 kg/m2 or higher) or overweight (BMI 27 to 30 kg/m2) with at least one weight-related comorbidity, with phentermine-topiramate, liraglutide, and naltrexone-bupropion designated as second-, third-, and fourth-line options respectively based on GRADE evidence review.

Pediatric pharmacists recorded 1,130 antithrombotic-related interventions involving 26.4% of 2,264 critically ill children across 9 U.S. children’s hospitals during 697 shifts from July 2023 to November 2024, with 74.7% of those interventions occurring in the pediatric cardiac ICU and 90.4% of initiation and management interventions involving anticoagulant agents.

“The key word is association. This study does not establish causality. For absolute, catastrophic harm to an appropriately selected, monitored pain patient, the risk is small.” – Sean Mackey, MD, PhD, Chief of the Division of Stanford Pain Medicine