Community Practice

Starting next year, health plans that earn 3 or more stars will be able to continue to serve Medicare beneficiaries. Those with fewer than 3 stars will probably be eliminated from the Medicare system.

ConnecT2Day is designed to help healthcare providers counsel patients in managing type 2 diabetes.

In which a determined pharmacist battles the forces of ignorance and stupidity on behalf of his patient and his own sanity.

In most retail chain stores, the buck stops at the pharmacy supervisor’s desk. Here's a look at the pharmacy biz from their point of view.

Patients should decide how a pharmacy can best communicate with patients. And they can use a very American way to make their feelings known.

The OIG determined that per-fill fees are “inherently subject to abuse” because of their direct tie to the number of patient prescriptions referred to the specialty pharmacy.

Adults can protect themselves against flu with a needle-free option. There's a benefit for vaccine administrators too - no needle sticks.

Each of the 26 free CE modules features an online Powerpoint lecture, a training video, an interactive activity set, and assessment questions.

By 2020, approximately 62% of all active pharmacists will be women. Here we follow three paths to rewarding and creative careers.

The Affordable Care Act is drastically changing the way patients and employers pay for healthcare and prescriptions.

Whether ACA thrives or bombs, the future is likely to bring upheaval that results in cost savings and improved delivery of healthcare services.

Health plans that have not scored at least three stars for the last three consecutive years will be vulnerable to elimination from the Medicare system. Pharmacists are in an ideal position to help with those scores.

New Rx, indications, generics, and OTC products

It's time to tackle the unmentionables.

Letters, e-mails, and posts from Drug Topics readers

U.S. citizens visited foreign destinations 62 million times last year. Many needed travel vaccines. That's a big niche.

A New York legislator said he plans to introduce a bill aimed at preventing an Upper East Side pharmacy from charging 9/11 responders $150 to obtain printouts of their records.

FDA has approved two new HIV-1 cocktail drugs: elvitegravir (Vitekta, Gilead), an integrase inhibitor and cobicistat (Tybost, Gilead), a protease-inhibitor booster.

How often do patients reach out to pharmacists in brick-and-mortar stores? The answer may surprise you.

FDA approved tiotropium bromide (Spiriva Respimat, Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals) inhalation spray for the long-term, once-daily maintenance treatment of bronchospasm associated with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to reduce exacerbations in patients with COPD.

Pharmacists delivering patient care services as part of patient-centered, interdisciplinary healthcare teams can make a difference for diabetes patients who are disproportionately affected by the disease and have limited access to quality care, according to the final results of Project IMPACT: Diabetes.

FDA has approved dulaglutide (Trulicity, Eli Lilly) to treat type 2 diabetes mellitus. The drug is a once-weekly subcutaneous injection used to improve glycemic control and is indicated as an adjunct to diet and exercise in the management of type 2 diabetes in adults.

California Gov. Jerry Brown recently signed legislation that makes the state the sixth to allow access to the overdose antidote naloxone without a prescription.

Two fathers and their sons keep the ideals of small-town pharmacy practice alive for 65 years.

Researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and FDA undertook a study to determine the most commonly implicated active ingredients responsible for childhood poisonings that required emergency hospitalization in the hope of identifying prevention and intervention strategies. Buprenorphine and clonidine were the most common of 12 active ingredients that were found in 45.0% of these hospitalizations.

One in five males were unable to buy the emergency contraceptive Plan B in several New York City pharmacies, according to a study published in the journal Contraception.

Proposed legislation that would cover home-based infusion therapy for Medicare beneficiaries could save the healthcare system approximately $80 million over 10 years and provide access to life-saving care at patients’ homes. The potential savings is outlined in a report released in June by Avalere.

A literature review going back 20 years found only a modest increase in patients' risk of developing statin-related conditions.

He's not filling a niche, he's serving a need, says pharmacist Frank Vostatek, who can add "role model" to the rest of his job description.

Albiglutide injection is the newest GLP-1 approved for once-weekly dosing in patients with type II diabetes, to be used in addition to diet and exercise.