Tag: prescription
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Two-Minute Primer on Electronic Prescription of Controlled Substances
The contents of a recent Drug Enforcement Administration policy statement on electronic prescriptions for controlled substances sound simple enough—you can use a mobile device for EPCS if it meets the latest Federal Information Processing Standards security requirements (FIPS 140-2), and you can use it as a “hard token” if it is separate from the device…
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Study: Doctors Reduced Opioid Prescriptions after Learning a Patient Overdosed
Will clinicians become more careful in prescribing opioids if they are made of aware of the risks of these drugs first-hand? That was one of the core questions researchers set out to explore in a new study published in the August 2018 issue of Science. In doing so, they found that many clinicians do not learn…
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Reducing Opioid Prescriptions for One Operation Can Have a Spillover Effect to Other Procedures
Study results show revised recommendations resulted in about 17 fewer pills being dispensed per patient for four major operations. CHICAGO – To curb the use of opioids after major elective operations and prevent these pain relievers from falling into the wrong hands, surgeons at the University of Michigan developed prescribing recommendations based on published medical…
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Trump Administration Releases Drug Pricing Blueprint
On May 11, The Trump Administration released “American Patients First,” the President’s blueprint to lower drug prices and reduce out-of-pocket costs, along with a request for information. The Blueprint was framed as advancing four specific goals: Reducing list prices; Improving government’s ability to negotiate better prices; Encouraging competition through rapid entry to market of generics and…
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Successful Take Back Alabama Week Ends with Opioid Summit
REVISED APRIL 27, 2018 ─ The Medical Association’s Take Back Alabama Week kicked off this week with a press conference at Walgreens in Birmingham on Monday, April 23. Representatives from AmerisourceBergen, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Alabama, Pfizer, Prime Therapeutics and Walgreens joined Attorney General Steve Marshall and Birmingham physician Gregory Ayers to announce…
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The New Department of Justice Initiative: Aggressively Investigating and Prosecuting Opioid-Related Cases
Before joining Burr & Forman, LLP, I was a federal prosecutor for a little over a decade specializing in health care fraud and general white collar matters. In that role, I was the member of a prosecution team that secured guilty verdicts earlier this year against two pain management doctors in Mobile, Ala., following a…
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Medical Association’s 2018 State and Federal Agendas
The Medical Association Board of Censors has met and approved the Association’s 2018 State and Federal Agendas. These agendas were developed with guidance from the House of Delegates and input from individual physicians. As the Alabama Legislature and U.S. Congress begin their work for 2018, additional items affecting physicians, medical practices and patients may be…
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CVS Pharmacy, Others to Limit Prescriptions for Opioids
Beginning in February 2018, CVS Pharmacy will limit the dose of opioid pain medication and restrict new prescriptions for acute pain to a 7-day supply, which adheres to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s guidelines for prescribing opioids. This limit involves capping daily low-dosages and requires patients to receive versions of the medication that…
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Congress Squares Off Over Drug Pricing and a Controversial Drug Discount Program
House Democrats are calling foul on Republican assertions that cuts to a little-known discount drug program will eventually reduce skyrocketing drug prices. At a hearing Tuesday, Rep. Diana DeGette (D-Colo.) said high drug prices should be investigated separately from the focus on oversight of the drug discount program, known as 340B. “I think we need…
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Opioid Prescribing Still High and Varies Widely Throughout U.S.
Opioid prescribing in the United States peaked in 2010 and then decreased each year through 2015, but remains at high levels and varies from county to county in the U.S., according to the latest Vital Signs report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Six times more opioids per resident were dispensed in 2015 in…