There are a few things left that Amazon.com doesn’t sell, and one of them is prescription drugs. Yet for most of the last year, analysts and retail-watchers have speculated that Amazon may be looking to get into the prescription drug business. Now there’s proof that the retailer has taken more official steps toward becoming a mail-order pharmacy. [More]
prescriptions
CVS Limiting Opioid Prescriptions Amid National Addiction Epidemic
By 9.21.17
Opioid prescription rates have more than tripled in the last two decades contributing to the nation’s current opioid addiction crisis, according to CVS. Now, the country’s largest pharmacy chain plans to do something about it by limiting opioid prescriptions. [More]
Maybe We Don’t Need To Take So Many Prescription Drugs
By 8.3.17
Do you take any prescription drugs? If so, you’re in the majority in this country. Drugs are life-saving or life-lengthening interventions most of the time, but can also interact with each other and cause further health problems. [More]
Walmart Adding Express Pharmacy & Money Services To Mobile App
By 2.28.17
In a bid to get you in and out of stores quickly and efficiently, Walmart is turning to its digital offerings. The big box retailer plans to roll out upgrades to its mobile app that will allow customers of its pharmacy and money service departments to complete some transactions through their phones and pick up items at new, dedicated “express lanes.” [More]
Walgreens Says That All Prescriptions Count For Balance Rewards Program, But Not Quite
By 1.30.17 — Updated: 1.31.17
When the word “all” appears in an ad, are you supposed to take it literally? That’s a good question, and it’s an important question when it comes to how Walgreens advertises its Balance Rewards program. The store’s marketing claims that “all” prescriptions are part of Balance Rewards, but that is not true. [More]
Costco Settles Federal Charges That It Turned Blind Eye To Bad Prescriptions
By 1.20.17
Costco has reached a deal with the U.S. Department of Justice to pay $11.75 million to resolve federal allegations that the warehouse club’s pharmacies violated the Controlled Substances Act by filling prescriptions they probably shouldn’t have. [More]
Government Warns Eye Doctors: Provide Prescriptions After Eye Exams Or Else
By 5.13.16
It’s really easy to find eyeglass stores that also offer eye exams. You get your eyes checked, pick out the frames, and get the final product all from the same place, so you might not notice that you didn’t get a copy of your prescription after the exam. That’s against the law, and one federal agency is reminding eye doctors of the costly penalty for failing to provide prescriptions. [More]
5 Things We Learned About The $300 Billion Painkiller Industry
By 4.28.16
Relieving pain isn’t a simple issue of taking a pill and feeling better. It’s a complicated cornucopia of treatments ranging from over-the-counter remedies to holistic healing to prescription medications, with some $300 billion a year spent each year on painkillers in the U.S. alone. [More]
6 Things We Learned About Pharma Payments To Doctors & Name-Brand Prescriptions
By 3.18.16
In news that really isn’t at all surprising — despite repeated denials from medical professionals — a new report found that doctors’ prescription habits are often influenced by the payments they receive from pharmaceutical and device makers. [More]
Walgreens Installing Drug Disposal Kiosks In 500 Stores
By 2.10.16
Do you have old and expired medicine just sitting in your medicine cabinet and you’re not quite sure how to get rid of it? Walgreens is installing kiosks in 500 stores in the hope of giving customers a way to quickly and easily dispose of their unused drugs.
[More]
Express Scripts To Offer $1 Version Of Drug That Skyrocketed To $750/Pill Overnight
By 12.1.15
Earlier this year, a company called Turing Pharmaceuticals purchased the rights to Daraprim (pyrimethamine), an anti-parasitic used to treat malaria and toxoplasmosis, that had sold for as little as $1/tablet until not too long ago. Overnight, the price of Daraprim skyrocketed to around $750/pill, resulting in angry doctors, and a Senate investigation. Today, pharmacy benefits giant Express Scripts announced a partnership that will introduce a version of pyrimethamine at the pre-Turing price. [More]
Senate Investigating Drug Companies Behind Huge Overnight Price Hikes
By 11.5.15
A handful of pharmaceutical investors have been snapping up the rights to previously affordable prescription drugs, only to immediately raise prices to the point where patients now pay hundreds of dollars for a single pill — resulting in huge additional costs for consumers, insurers, and healthcare providers. Not only has this practice drawn the ire of the medical community, it’s also resulted in a Senate committee investigation. [More]
Pharma Biggie Hit With $125M Penalty For Illegal Kickbacks To Doctors, Falsified Insurance Forms
By 10.29.15
A subsidiary of multibillion-dollar international pharmaceuticals company Allergan has agreed to plead guilty to a felony charge of healthcare fraud and pay $125 million to close the books on criminal and civil liability claims tied to the subsidiary’s illegal marketing activities for seven different name-brand prescription drugs. [More]
Sketchy 10% Of Doctors Are Writing More Than 50% Of Painkiller Prescriptions
By 10.16.15
While most doctors try to honor their oath to do no harm, some physicians just want to be paid (or are really, really, just horrible at their jobs). Take, for example, the 1-in-10 doctors responsible for writing the majority of painkiller prescriptions. [More]
Doctors Not Happy After Drug Goes From $13.50/Tablet To $750 Overnight
By 9.21.15
Gripe as we might, consumers understand that price increases do happen. What’s not as easily understood is how the price for something can go from $13.50 one day to $750 the next — especially when it’s a generic drug used to save lives. [More]
Prescription Price Sticker Shock Is Now A Common Consumer Ailment
By 8.13.15
Maybe this has happened to you: you’re at the pharmacy, picking up a refill of a prescription that you or a family member have been taking for a long time. It’s a routine errand until you get sticker shock: the copay has suddenly shot up. You didn’t change insurance, it’s still the same year, and the drug is the same: how can a price change so dramatically so quickly? [More]
CVS Must Pay $450K To Settle Claims That Pharmacies Filled Bogus Prescriptions
By 8.10.15
CVS Health agreed to pay $450,000 to settle a years-long investigation by Rhode Island and the Drug Enforcement Administration that several of its locations filled forged and invalid painkiller prescriptions in violation of federal laws. [More]
Class-Action Suit Accuses CVS Of Overcharging Customers For Generic Drugs
By 7.31.15
The country’s second largest pharmacy chain is the latest party in a class-action lawsuit that accuses CVS of deliberately overcharging hundreds of thousands of patients for generic prescription drugs. [More]
