Tips for Safe Prescription Drug Use at Home

Today's blog features an article that's relevant in today's society. With the opioid epidemic being declared a National Emergency it's important to teach kids safe prescription drug use at home.

Express Scripts writes, "According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 1 million children under the age of 5 are exposed to potentially poisonous medications and household chemicals every year. And more than 60,000 young children end up in the emergency room each year from wrongly ingesting medications." 

Find all of the safety tips in the full article HERE!

Performance Pharmacy Solutions (PPS) is a unique pharmacy benefit procurement platform developed by HORIZON Health Ventures to efficiently and effectively place, manage and oversee our self-funded client's pharmacy benefit management programs. The PPS platform provides turnkey solutions with proven market-leading PBM partners that offer, on average, 10-15% savings. 

Statin Use Raises Diabetes Risk 'Even in High-Risk Patients'

Today's blog features a headline that's been featured quite a few times across all healthacare news outlets. Medscape recently published an article that highlights the effects of long-term statin use among high-risk Type 2 diabetes patients.

Liam Davenport of Medscape writes, "Studies show that over 10 years, statin use was linked to a 36% increased risk of being diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, falling to 27% after taking into account baseline risk factors and clinical criteria used to determine the need for statins. The findings are consistent with previous studies suggesting that statin use substantially increases the risk of type 2 diabetes." 

Learn more about this study by reading the full article HERE! 

Performance Pharmacy Solutions (PPS) is a unique pharmacy benefit procurement platform developed by HORIZON Health Ventures to efficiently and effectively place, manage and oversee our self-funded client's pharmacy benefit management programs. The PPS platform provides turnkey solutions with proven market-leading PBM partners that offer, on average, 10-15% savings. 

Biosimilars

Today's blog features a recent U.S. Food & Drug Administration article that highlights the benefits of biosimilars. Biosimilars were created as a way for patients to receive the perscriptions they need at a fraction of the name brand cost. 

The FDA writes, "FDA requires biosimilar and interchangeable biological products meet the Agency’s rigorous approval standards. That means patients and health care professionals will be able to rely upon the safety and effectiveness of the biosimilar or interchangeable product, just as they would the reference product." 

To read the full article, please click HERE! 

Performance Pharmacy Solutions (PPS) is a unique pharmacy benefit procurement platform developed by HORIZON Health Ventures to efficiently and effectively place, manage and oversee our self-funded client's pharmacy benefit management programs. The PPS platform provides turnkey solutions with proven market-leading PBM partners that offer, on average, 10-15% savings. 

A Dose of Good Knowledge

Today's blog features a special "Ask the Pharmacist" edition courtesy of Express Scripts. Express Scripts prides themselves on the idea of practicing pharmacy smarter and has provided a list resources that complimented a list of the ten most read topics. The topics range from safe opioid practices to the role of rescue inhalers.

To find the full list please click HERE!

Performance Pharmacy Solutions (PPS) is a unique pharmacy benefit procurement platform developed by HORIZON Health Ventures to efficiently and effectively place, manage and oversee our self-funded client's pharmacy benefit management programs. The PPS platform provides turnkey solutions with proven market-leading PBM partners that offer, on average, 10-15% savings. 

New California Law Challenges ‘Evils’ of Pharma Profits

Today's blog features the Benefits Pro article that highlights the recent move made by California governor, Jerry Brown who defied the drug industry yesterday by signing a sweeping drug price transparency bill that will force drug makers to publicly justify big price hikes.

Brown states, “Californians have a right to know why their medical costs are out of control, especially when pharmaceutical profits are soaring. This measure is a step at bringing transparency, truth, exposure to a very important part of our lives. That is the cost of prescription drugs.”

Read the full article HERE!

Performance Pharmacy Solutions (PPS) is a unique pharmacy benefit procurement platform developed by HORIZON Health Ventures to efficiently and effectively place, manage and oversee our self-funded client's pharmacy benefit management programs. The PPS platform provides turnkey solutions with proven market-leading PBM partners that offer, on average, 10-15% savings. 

Super Spending: Caring for People Whose Needs are Greatest

Today's blog features the recently published Express Scripts article that references Tuesday's blog post. We can all relate as most everyone personally knows someone who has relied on $50,000 or more worth of prescription medications last year. This population of individuals with extraordinarily high medications costs is becoming less rare at a very fast pace.

Express Scripts writes, "We need to keep tightly managing pharmacy spend to make room for more expensive therapies. We also need responsible pricing for medications, more competition in classes with limited therapeutic options, and smarter policies so payers continue to care for all patients, and so patients can continue to afford the treatments they need." 

To read more, please click HERE!

Performance Pharmacy Solutions (PPS) is a unique pharmacy benefit procurement platform developed by HORIZON Health Ventures to efficiently and effectively place, manage and oversee our self-funded client's pharmacy benefit management programs. The PPS platform provides turnkey solutions with proven market-leading PBM partners that offer, on average, 10-15% savings. 

FDA Acts to Encourage Generic Competition for Complex Drugs

Today's blog features an important article out of Modern Healthcare. The FDA is currently working to reduce high drug costs by encouraging the development of generic versions of hard-to-make medicines. This is not an easy or timely process.

"Difficulty in creating copies or near-copies of such drugs and getting them approved may deter generic companies from even trying, FDA Commissinoer Dr. Scott Gottlieb wrote in a blog post. That means patients don't get access to cheaper verisons of those drugs and brand-name medicine makers continue to rake in money, often billions of dollars a year per drug."

To read more, please click HERE!

Performance Pharmacy Solutions (PPS) is a unique pharmacy benefit procurement platform developed by HORIZON Health Ventures to efficiently and effectively place, manage and oversee our self-funded client's pharmacy benefit management programs. The PPS platform provides turnkey solutions with proven market-leading PBM partners that offer, on average, 10-15% savings.