Literature Review

Pharmacy in suit files for bankruptcySan Antonio Express News, by Patrick Danner; 2/12/24County's litigation targets Trinity along with major retailers for the amount of opioids it dispensed. ... A lawyer for the county dubbed it a "pill mill." ... Trinity Pharmacies said in a court filing that 99% of prescriptions it fills are for patients in hospice care.

Strategies for positive change in opioid prescribingPharmacy Times; 2/1/24This is a video synopsis/summary of a Practice Pearls featuring Ryan Haumschild, PharmD, MS, MBA, CPEL; Megan Mitchell, PharmD, MS; Stephanie Abel, PharmD, BCPS; and Jennifer Grate, CPhT. Haumschild discusses the importance of positive change in opioid stewardship. 

Hospices struggle to balance costs, patient needs in medication deprescribingHospice News, by Jim Parker; 1/30/24When deprescribing medications for hospice patients, providers have to navigate a complex web of factors. But according to some clinicians, the prospect of cost savings often takes precedence over clinical outcomes. Medication costs are among hospices’ biggest expenses, and deprescribing some medications deemed “curative” or “unrelated” to the patient’s terminal diagnosis is a standard practice. However, even in the context of providing comfort care at the end of life, many patients do not receive medications that could benefit them, including those for pain management.

New research challenges the commonly held view that opioids are the most powerful pain relieversSciTechDaily, by University of Sydney; 1/21/24A University of Sydney-led study challenges the prevailing view of opioids as the most effective pain relievers for cancer, revealing significant evidence gaps and suggesting NSAIDs as a potential alternative. This research advocates for more informed choices in cancer pain management, emphasizing patient empowerment and the consideration of non-opioid options.

StateServ announces acquisition of Delta Care RxPR Newswire; 1/22/2024StateServ, a leading provider of durable medical equipment ("DME") benefit management solutions to the post-acute care market in the United States, has completed its acquisition of Delta Care Rx ("Delta Care"), a national pharmaceutical care provider. Delta Care offers integrated pharmacy benefit management, mail order prescription, sterile/non-sterile compounding, and clinical pharmacist consulting to the hospice and palliative care markets. ... The unique combination forms a leading care-at-home data, technology, and service platform and the industry's first scaled DME and pharmacy solution.

Social determinants of health play 'an important role' in end-of-life pain strategiesHealio, by Jennifer Byrne and Timothy M. Pawlik; 1/16/24Patients with gastrointestinal cancers face ongoing racial/ethnicity-based disparities in end-of-life pain management, specifically in terms of access to and utilization of opioids, study results showed.

Humana wins $360M in Walgreens drug price settlementModern Healthcare, by Lauren Berryman; 1/8/24Walgreens will pay Humana $360 million to resolve allegations the pharmacy chain overcharged the health insurer for prescription drugs.

A medication mistake cost a Lockport woman her life. A new grant aims to help others avoid same fateThe Buffalo News, by Scott Scanlon; 1/2/24 In a perfect health care system, patients who ended up in the hospital would start to feel better soon and go home with a recovery plan, along with any medications designed to help in that process. ... “All medications have side effects, and some are especially harmful in older adults,” UB officials said in announcing a four-year, $1.95 million grant focused on improving medication prescribing.

The Language of Hospice Can Help Us Get Better at Discussing DeathTIMEDecember 18, 2023Just because death is inevitable doesn’t make it easy or natural to talk about. In a new study, researchers wondered if hospice workers—experts in end-of-life care—had lessons to teach the rest of us when it came to speaking with patients and families about death. Daniel Menchik, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Arizona who studies the use of language in different fields of medicine, spent eight months sitting in on team meetings at a hospice care facility that were also open to patients’ families. ... In the study, Menchik noticed that hospice workers used three different types of verbs in meetings with family members: predictive, subjunctive, and imperative. Predictive verbs are used to assert things about the future and include words like “will” and “going to.” Imperative verbs carry a similar firmness, but include a call to action; the most common one Menchik encounters in medical settings is “should.” Subjunctive verbs convey some sort of personal stance when talking about the future. “Think,” “feel,” “want,” and many other expressive phrases fall in this category. When a family starts hospice care, “their capabilities to engage in intense conversations [about death] are usually pretty limited,” Menchik says. But he believes that hospice workers help bridge that gap by minimizing their use of imperative verbs. In meetings he observed, imperative verbs made up just 17% of the verb phrases used by hospice professionals. That’s fairly uncommon in medicine. Editor's Note: Use this article to examine the language used in your team meetings; to strengthen your orientation of employees from non-hospice settings; to engage your admissions nurses in a lively dialogue about its applicability to their experiences with patients and families.

CT to consider decriminalization of psychedelic mushrooms. What you should know.Hartford CourantDecember 10, 2023... In the same way that marijuana was considered for decades as an illegal drug, a societal shift allowed a refocus on medical marijuana for pain relief and other uses. Now, mushrooms are also being viewed for their potential benefits though some politicians still remain skeptical. The next step is that advocates want to decriminalize possession of small amounts of mushrooms, and they will be pushing for that in the 2024 legislative session. The state House of Representatives passed a bill last year, but the issue was never debated in the Senate before time ran out. Now, in a short session that starts in early February, advocates are taking another chance at decriminalization.

‘It will put us out of business’—Remington pharmacist fights corporate fees, under-paymentsCulpeper (VA) Star-ExponentDecember 1, 2023Remington, VA—A local pharmacist is joining voices calling for reform and oversight of corporate-run “Pharmacy Benefit Managers” (PBMs) he said are straining the historic small-town pharmacy he runs, located on Main Street since 1913, still with its original soda fountain. Travis Hale, PharmD, president of Apothecary Solutions Inc., doing business as Remington Drug Co., said the payment practices of the prescription drug middlemen are responsible for community pharmacies closing at an alarming rate.

The U.S. pharmacy industry is crumbling. Here’s how to fix it.