New Jersey Bill Requires Pharmacists to Fill
Rxs
Trenton, NJ --
A bill that amends the New Jersey Pharmacy Practice Act, prohibits
pharmacists in the state from refusing to dispense or refill "a prescription
or medication order solely on the grounds that the dispensing or refill of the
prescription or medication order would contravene the pharmacist's
philosophical, moral, or religious beliefs." If a pharmacy does not have a
prescription in stock, it would have to either obtain it under expedited
ordering or find a nearby pharmacy to fill the prescription. At press time,
the bill was approved by the Senate and was sent to N.J. Governor Jon S.
Corzine for his signature.
Medicare Part D Hurts Independent
Pharmacists
Alexandria, VA
-- Preliminary results from the 2007 NCPA-Pfizer Digest, a
comprehensive financial and demographic survey of the nation's independent
community pharmacies, suggest that many independent pharmacists are getting
hurt financially from the Medicare Part D prescription drug plan as a result
of low and slow reimbursements. According to the National Community
Pharmacists Association (NCPA), co-sponsor of the survey, the most troubling
aspects of the Digest suggest that there have been a multitude of store
closings in 2006, stagnation in the average total prescription sales, and
plummeting net operating income. Commenting on the figures, NCPA's executive
vice president and CEO Bruce Roberts, RPh, said that "patients' access to
medication is jeopardized when stores are forced out of business by government
programs."
NACDS Says Medicaid Rx Reimbursements
Need to be Fixed
Alexandria, VA --
The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) is putting pressure on
Congress to act promptly and decisively on a recent Office of the Inspector
General (OIG) report that showed proposed payment rules would result in
significant underpayments to community pharmacies that participate in the
Medicaid program. The OIG analysis found that acquisition costs for 19 of the
25 selected high-expenditure drugs "would have been higher" than what the
federal program would have reimbursed pharmacists under the Deficit Reduction
Act of 2005. "Rather than reflecting actual pharmacy drug costs, the
reimbursement limits currently proposed by [the Centers for Medicare and
Medicare Services] would dramatically limit the availability of community
pharmacy services to millions of Medicaid beneficiaries," said NACDS President
and CEO Steven C. Anderson, IOM, CAE.
Ovarian Cancer Symptoms Should be
Reported Earlier
Boca Raton, FL --
The National Ovarian Cancer Coalition (NOCC) joined forces with the
Gynecologic Cancer Foundation and other national organizations in announcing
the first national agreement on ovarian cancer symptoms. According to
extensive research, symptoms like bloating, pelvic or abdominal pain,
difficulty eating or feeling full quickly, and urinary symptoms (urgency or
frequency) are more likely to occur in women with ovarian cancer than women in
the general population. Therefore it has been strongly suggested that women
who have these symptoms almost daily for more than a few weeks see their
gynecologist.
SIDS Recurrence May be Overestimated
Danby Wiske, England --
A literature review of 18 previously published studies has uncovered that the
recurrence of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) within families may be less
common than reported. According to an online report in the Archives of
Disease in Childhood, the risks that parents who have lost one child to
SIDS will lose another is likely less than 1 in 500. "Families whose initial
death was fully investigated and who have no major risk factors can be advised
that, although the risk of a second death may be slightly increased, it
remains very small," the researchers reported.