Patti's Blog - Advocate for Elders, People with Disabilities and Their Families

Compounding Pharmacy Implicated in Deaths

Excerpt from: Lawyers.com (click for full article)

 

A compounding pharmacy in Massachusetts has been linked to the outbreak of a rare form of fungal meningitis caused by contamination of steroid injections commonly used for back and neck pain.

Meningitis is a swelling of the protective membranes of the brain and spinal cord. Problems with the injections arose when the contaminated steroid was injected near the spine. Steroid injections in knees or hips are highly unlikely to cause meningitis.

The compounding pharmacy shipped 17,676 potentially tainted vials to 75 pain clinics in 23 states. The contents of 14,000 vials were injected into patients. Five hundred and fifty people became ill and 37 of them died. The company has ceased operations, surrendered its license and recalled all of its products.

Medicaid cut cuts deep into community pharmacies

Excerpt from: Vermilion Today (click for full article)

 

If community pharmacies were waiting for things to get better with the Department of Health and Hospital’s (DHH) new plan for Medicaid reimbursement, they probably have realized by now things aren’t getting better; they’re getting worse.

Alterations to the DHH’s changes have been made, and still, pharmacies can only scratch their heads and try to figure out what they can do to make sure they do not suffer huge financial losses and keep their doors open.

“It’s almost like ‘What can we do’,” said Brandy Freed, owner of The Medicine Shoppe in Crowley. “We have to roll with the punches.

“All you can do right now is try to increase business to try and make up for it. That’s what we’re doing.”

The state’s health chief said last week that revisions made in response to pharmacies’ complaints should quell the backlash.

They didn’t. Instead, it seems the changes themselves are “horrible” as Louisiana Independent Pharmacies Association President Randal Johnson dubbed the amended plan that began Thursday, Nov. 1. The roughly 500 members of the association are not affiliated with the big chain store pharmacies.