Content about Medicare

ALEXANDRIA, Va.  — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores has engaged its Rapid Response Program, issuing a letter to the editor to the Los Angeles Times to highlight the importance of maintaining prescription medication access to prevent patient health complications and the increased need for costly forms of health care.

Through the Rapid Response Program, NACDS proactively addresses media reports and other communications in the public domain in a way that raises awareness of the value of community pharmacies as the face of neighborhood healthcare.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — In a letter to the congressional Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction, also known as the super committee, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores provided recommendations related to diabetes testing supplies for Medicare patients. NACDS said its recommendations would prevent the unintended consequences of hasty policy mistakes, and foster better and more cost-effective patient care.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — As annual open enrollment season begins for Medicare Part D prescription drug plans, CVS pharmacists are available to answer questions and provide guidance on how to complete plan comparisons, CVS/pharmacy announced on Friday.

From Oct. 15 to Dec. 7, Medicare beneficiaries have the opportunity to review their current prescription coverage and enroll in a new plan, if they so choose.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Wrapping up its 113th Annual Convention and Trade Exposition, the National Community Pharmacists Association on Tuesday outlined the association's key initiatives and programs heading into 2012. Chief among the association's concerns are threats to already-diminutive reimbursement rates for prescriptions filled, including the release of federal upper limits by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

At press time, the industry was weighing the potential merger of pharmacy benefit manager rivals Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions, but executives at CVS Caremark remain more confident than ever that its PBM business is ideally positioned to “effectively compete,” regardless of what federal trade regulators decide for ESI-Medco. And there’s good reason why.


DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens last month announced its offer of free blood-pressure checks, along with complementary healthcare professional consultations, as its contribution to the Million Hearts campaign, sponsored by the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.


WASHINGTON — A growing number of people with Medicare are using free preventive services provided by the Affordable Care Act, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Community Pharmacists Association is recommending several ways for reducing Medicare Part D fraud, waste and abuse to the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs subcommittee, the group said Tuesday.

HARTFORD, Conn. — CVS/pharmacy has teamed up with Aetna to offer Medicare beneficiaries a co-branded prescription drug plan.

The companies said the new Aetna CVS/pharmacy Prescription Drug Plan will be made available to beneficiaries in 43 states and Washington, D.C. The plan offers a $26 monthly plan premium and has no deductible for generic drugs. In addition, members will have the following benefits when they fill their prescriptions at a CVS/pharmacy (compared with a nonpreferred network pharmacy):

REDWOOD CITY, Calif. — The use of over-the-counter medicines as a cost savings tool is catching on, of all places, at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid. Certain plans under Medicare are utilizing a new prepaid card of sorts to allow members to pay for their OTC medicines. Medicaid administrators, meanwhile, are employing that same card to incentivize healthier behavior among its members.

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens, the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Tuesday announced the kick-off of the Million Hearts Initiative, a public and private sector initiative to help prevent 1 million heart attacks and strokes over five years.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Association of Chain Drug Stores is calling on Congress to scrutinize the proposed merger of pharmacy benefit managers Express Scripts and Medco and, in a letter submitted Friday to the House of Representatives Ways and Means Subcommittee on Health, outlined the “problems” it believes would result from the mega-merger.

The House panel held a hearing Friday titled “Health Care Industry Consolidation.”