pharmacists

> A Philadelphia doctor paints a grim picture of the impact high insurance premiums are having on Pennsylvania's doctors. Op-Ed

> In Denver, UnitedHealthcare and HealthOne have been unable to renegotiate their contract that expired August 31. …

> Tight school budgets have made school nurses all but obsolete. But 29 schools in Miami-Dade County are bring healthcare back to schools by providing health aids and traveling nurse practitioners to the campuses. Article

> The Cleveland clinic has cut ties with a cardiologist who didn't report his financial ties to a product he invented …

Columbia Memorial Hospital employees have postponed today's planned strike and will continue negotiations with the Hudson, NY hospital administrators after Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-NY) sent a letter asking both sides to "redouble your efforts to negotiate a fair and reasonable contract for the benefit of the hospital, the workforce and the community."

Since December, union members--which include registered nurses, pharmacists, medical technicians, technologists, housekeeping and …

> Siemens bought the diagnostics unit of Bayer in a deal worth €4.2 billion ($5.3 billion). The deal makes Siemens Healthcare one of the biggest players in the emerging immunodiagnostics field. Article

> Canada's plan to allow pharmacists to write prescriptions is triggering fierce debate. Some …

Researchers at Johns Hopkins released a study that concludes requiring doctors and nurses to report medication errors and log them in a database improves care quality and decreases the chances that providers will make mistakes. The research, which appears in the June issue of the journal Quality & Safety in Healthcare, looked at mistakes at the Johns Hopkins Children's Center. In the study, researchers found errors occur during every step of the medication process …

Pharmacists and insurers groups clashed in Washington over payment for Medicare Part D claims. Critics say many of the companies that offer drug plans under the new benefit are taking too long to resolve claims, putting financial pressure on pharmacies. Administration officials had initally argued that the numbers showed that insurers were making payments within 21-25 days. On Wednesday, a CMS spokesman admitted that the agency has no data backing that claim.

- see this article from The Hill

Quebec will spend $525 million--that's Canadian dollars--to develop an electronic health record system that will provide all of the region's doctors and pharmacists  access to patient records and other medical information by 2011. The province is considering adopting technology developed by Alberta's NetCare project. Article

Democrats in Congress have begun to hearings to highlight the many (and frequently reported) problems with Medicare Part D. With one eye on the President's low approval ratings and the other on the November election, Sen. Byron L. Dorgan (D-ND) held a hearing in which a Fargo pharmacist described how some pharmacists must take out bank loans to cover reimbursement delays. "This is simply unacceptable," Dorgan said. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) called for "a complete …

The Bush administration has ordered insurers to provide a temporary 30-day supply of medicines to Medicare Part D recipients in an effort to control growing problems. The White House also ordered co-pays for low income seniors to be capped at $5 per prescription. The move is seen as an admission that things are not going as smoothly as they could be. Over the weekend, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services administrator Dr. Mark McClellan conceded that "thousands" of program …

As you might expect, the Medicare Part D Drug coverage program, which started on January 1, has had some teething problems. There are reports that the computer system logging who has what coverage, run by pharmacy transaction company NDC, has incorrect data or is not accessible by pharmacists. Still, it's a little early to report on whether this is a set-up glitch or something worse. Report