Content about U.S. healthcare

Calling all pharmacists: If ever there was a need for pharmacy-based patient education, that time is now. Patients will need your help to unravel the complex set of regulations spawned by health reform.

Are the nation’s more than 330,000 pharmacy technicians ready to step up to a higher level of patient services and a more demanding but rewarding career?

For most pharmacy techs, that step up in duties is either fast approaching or has already begun. Given the massive changes sweeping the severely stressed U.S. healthcare system and the retail, clinical and hospital pharmacies that serve it, thousands of technicians in those settings are already taking on meatier roles as they fill the void left by pharmacists called on to perform additional clinical services.

Medication nonadherence costs the U.S. healthcare system about $290 billion per year, according to New England Healthcare Institute. That big and scary number — the kind whose sheer enormity can make one’s eyes glaze over — is now even bigger.


ITHACA, N.Y. — Obesity now accounts for almost 21% of U.S. healthcare costs — more than twice the previous estimates — according to a new Cornell University study released Monday.

The research, one of the first to show a causal effect of obesity on medical care costs, utilized new methods and makes a stronger case for government intervention to prevent obesity, the authors wrote in the January issue of the Journal of Health Economics.

WASHINgTON — A Consumer Healthcare Products Association study earlier this year supported what everyone has known all along: Use of over-the-counter medicines saves the U.S. healthcare system money. A lot of it. 


For every dollar spent on over-the-counter medicines, the U.S. healthcare system realizes a savings of between $6 and $7, or $102 billion all told, according to CHPA’s study, “The Value of OTC Medicine to the United States.”


WASHINGTON — For every dollar spent on over-the-counter medicines, the U.S. healthcare system realizes a savings of between $6 and $7, or $102 billion all told, the Consumer Healthcare Products Association announced Tuesday with the release of this new study, "The Value of OTC Medicine to the United States."

Since the inception of retail-based health clinics in 2000, the concept has grown to more than 1,300 locations throughout the United States and, in more recent months, has celebrated several significant milestones that prove clinics are not only an integral part of the U.S. healthcare system but also are a viable model for retailers when handled correctly. The real question now: Are we on the brink of clinics version 2.0?


NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Almost one-third of Americans who have not had enough money to pay for health care and/or medicine in the past 12 months are smokers, according to the October 2011 Gallup-Healthways Well-Being Index. The percentage of smokers is cut in half (14.2%) when it comes to the population that can afford to pay for health care and/or medicine in the past 12 months. Of the Americans without a personal doctor, 27.5% smoke.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT — The results of the CVS Caremark-sponsored review of e-prescriptions, which revealed an issue of primary nonadherence to prescription medications, is yet one more step toward a weapon in the fight against medication nonadherence.

(THE NEWS: CVS Caremark-sponsored review of e-Rxs uncovers issue of primary nonadherence. For the full story, click here)

WASHINGTON — It is critical for the Food and Drug Administration and Office of Generic Drugs to be fully funded so that patients can receive access to affordable medicines, the Generic Pharmaceutical Association said Wednesday.

The group called on the Senate to uphold the funds allocated to the FDA by the Senate Committee on Appropriations. GPhA president and CEO Ralph Neas said that cutting funds would affect the sustainability of the U.S. healthcare system, including such programs as Medicare and Medicaid.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Armada Health Care announced that its annual Armada Specialty Pharmacy Summit will feature Karl Rove and Robert Gibbs as keynote speakers.

Slated to speak at the conference's general session, Rove and Gibbs will participate in a moderated discussion on such topics as current U.S. healthcare legislation, the economy and the 2012 presidential election.