Legal News

Prescriptions could take on a new look if the Office of the Inspector General gets its way.

The outcry from physicians, pharmacists, and patients over disruptions in supplies of vital medications continues to draw attention on Capitol Hill and throughout the healthcare system.

California pharmacists are claiming victory after the U.S. Supreme Court sent 3 cases back to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in Los Angeles. The cases involved injunctions halting Medicaid reimbursement cuts to pharmacies and other providers in California.

The NCPA will continue to work with the government in 2012 to make changes for you and your patients.

In most cases, a pharmacy is, by definition, a HIPAA-covered entity, so it is subject to a possible audit by the federal government. Here's what you can do to prepare–just in case.

Cardinal Health has requested a temporary restraining order to block a Drug Enforcement Administration suspension halting controlled-substance shipments from its Lakeland, Fla., distribution center. DEA suspended Cardinal’s distribution license for the Lakeland facility last Friday.

The Federal Trade Commission turned thumbs down on Omnicare?s attempted acquisition of competitor PharMerica. The agency filed suit in federal court to block the hostile takeover.

Pharmacy and medical groups are suing the California Department of Health Care Services and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services over the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ recent approval of a 10% reimbursement rate cut in California’s Medicaid program.

FDA has appealed the September 2011 ruling made by the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in U.S. v. Franck’s Lab, Inc. The ruling had favored pharmacy compounding for veterinary patients.

FDA recently announced that the District Court for the Middle District of Florida entered a consent decree that prohibits Hill Dermaceuticals Inc., Hill Labs Inc., and certain individuals from introducing adulterated drugs into interstate commerce.

Pharmacy owners, pharmacists, and technicians should spend some time understanding their insurance policies. It may be time well spent.

As healthcare moves swiftly toward a more comprehensive electronic platform, pharmacies will be required to upgrade their claim submission standard from NCPDP 5.1 to NCPDP D.0, an updated version of the HIPAA standard for pharmacy claims transactions.

It's complicated. Those words sum up the current status and apparent future of biosimilars.

Advocates are hoping for a new push in Congress to control rogue online pharmacies, according to Bryan A. Liang, professor at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine and vice president of the Partnership for Safe Medicine.

While Medicare and Medicaid were exempted from budget cuts in the initial debt agreement reached by the U.S. House and Senate this week, they could be up for cuts later this year.

The Independent Specialty Pharmacy Coalition, a group of community-based specialty pharmacies, called on the Federal Trade Commission to block Express Scripts? proposed acquisition of Medco.

As a result of combined investigations by FDA, the IRS Criminal Division, and the U.S. Department of Justice, Elisane Garcia was sentenced on July 25 for disguising controlled substances as "Brazilian diet pills" and smuggling them into the United States with intent to distribute. She was also convicted of 1 count of money-laundering.

If the U.S. Congress fails to reach a consensus on the deficit issue by August 2, there could be significant impact on Medicare and other federal programs, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores announced today.

Opponents of a controversial Change Request initiated by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services aired their views to CMS officials earlier this week.

The National Community Pharmacists Association expects U.S. legislators to get behind 2 new bills that would allow independent pharmacists to negotiate insurance contracts with pharmacy benefit managers.

Founded in 1904, the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy is an impartial professional organization geared toward supporting the efforts of individual state boards of pharmacy to protect the public health and safety.

As expected, the U.S. Supreme Court recently struck down a landmark case that would have prohibited data-mining companies from selling physicians' prescribing information to pharmaceutical manufacturers for use in marketing. Still some independent pharmacists say they are not in favor of the practice.

One component of a new federal action plan for controlling viral hepatitis calls for expanded delivery of hepatitis A and B vaccines through pharmacies, beginning in 2013.

Whereas historic pharmacy practice linked the pharmacist to a product, as pharmacists move toward more complete healthcare services, they are now also providers of cognitive services. As pharmacists delve further into cognitive services and take on greater patient responsibility, the process is likely to add to liability exposure.

The Food and Drug Administration and Federal Trade Commission are cracking down on fraudulent dietary supplements claiming to treat sexually transmitted diseases.

As pharmacists responsibilities expand, so may some of their liabilities. A number of those liabilities may be related to controlled substances.

Pharmacists are often reluctant to apologize. One fear is that lawyers may use their statements against them. Another fear is that they may be violating their own malpractice insurance policies. But there can be advantages to saying, "I made a mistake; I am sorry." A patient may be saved and a possibly explosive situation may be cooled. For most of us, it is the natural thing to do.

Are pharmacies subcontractors when they fill prescriptions for TRICARE, the federal health program for military personnel? Not according to the National Association of Chain Drugs Stores.