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April 30, 2014
  • Dietary Supplement Use More Common Than
    Previously Reported

    This won’t come as much of a surprise to pharmacists, but most U.S. adults are using dietary supplements, and, increasingly, their products of choice are not multivitamins but a variety of specific supplements. Find out what supplements are most popular and why a recent survey says the trend bodes well for the users’ overall health.

  • Free Samples Increase Expensive Drug Prescribing
    in Dermatology

    Do drug samples affect prescriber decision making? A lot of physicians say they don’t, but a new study of dermatologists disagrees. Overall, researchers found that the average retail cost of the prescriptions written by dermatologists with access to samples is about twice as much as those written by dermatologists at an academic medical center where such samples are prohibited. Here are the details.

  • Pharmacy Groups Seek Delay of Medicaid Generic
    Drug Formula

    If a new formula, the Medicaid average manufacturer’s price-based federal upper limits for prescription medications, goes into effect in July, as planned, pharmacies will see much lower reimbursement rates for generic drugs. Several pharmacy associations are trying to delay implementation and recently wrote a letter to that effect to the Department of Health and Human Services. Find out what the groups are seeking instead.

  • EDs Still Writing Pediatric Codeine Prescriptions Despite Harmful Effects

    Several national and international associations oppose pediatric use of codeine, but some emergency departments still prescribe the opioid for children with coughs and colds. In fact, more than a half million prescriptions for the drug were written in EDs each year of a 2001-2010 study period. What better alternatives do the researchers suggest?


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