1 2 3 4 » CEO Message June 27, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Jun 27 2008 12:00AM Urgent Alert Yesterday, many pharmacies in California received a letter by fax from DHCS. This letter was sent to pharmacies in error. I spoke with representatives from EDS and DHCS and was able to confirm that this letter will be used for institutional providers after July 1. The following statement from DHCS also confirms that pharmacies are a federally protected provider and will continue to receive payments even if the state does not have a budget.   CEO Message June 20, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Jun 20 2008 7:34PM Ten Percent Medi-Cal Provider Cuts Update Today, our lawsuit hearing was canceled as the state moved our case to federal court.  We received word late yesterday that the attorneys for the Department of Health Care Services petitioned to move our case to federal court. This action at the eleventh hour is an extremely frustrating stall tactic on the part of the state.  This is the same tactic that was used in regards to the other two lawsuits. There is a slim chance that we will still receive a hearing before July 1 and we are doing everything possible to accomplish this. Our attorneys are filing a motion today to move the case back to state court, which we believe is the appropriate venue. Click here to read the press release we distributed today. On Monday, June 23 in Los Angeles Federal Court, the other two suits are scheduled for hearing. We will send an update on Monday as information becomes available. CEO Message June 6, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Jun 9 2008 1:38PM Ten Percent Medi-Cal Budget Cuts Update As I mentioned last week, our efforts are working to inform lawmakers and the public about the impending disaster to come should these cuts be implemented on July 1, 2008. There was another flurry of news articles this week related to the Legislature's activities. See articles below where Assembly Speaker Karen Bass has pledged to come up with $6.4 billion in additional revenues and savings to avoid funding cuts to health, education and social service programs. Other lawmakers have expressed extreme concern regarding these cuts as well. We will keep you regularly updated on any movement within the Legislature regarding provider cuts.   CEO Message May 30, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: May 30 2008 12:00AM Medi-Cal Reimbursement Cuts Update This has been a very busy week, albeit a short one. Significant progress has been made on several fronts. On the legal front, we continue to move ahead as well as work to get our coalition lawsuit back into state court while looking at additional legal actions. I should have more information on this next week.   CEO Message May 23, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Jun 2 2008 11:52AM Medi-Cal Budget Cuts Update Legal Action - This week, CPhA and our partners were very disappointed to learn that the Attorney General's Office petitioned to have both pending lawsuits moved to federal court. Our legal team has told us that this will delay our action. However, this does not mean that we won't prevail in stopping the cuts; it just means that it could be in the eleventh hour before the scheduled implementation of July 1, 2008.   CEO Message May 16, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: May 19 2008 6:09PM Governor's Proposed May Revise Offers No Relief for Healthcare and Significantly Worsens the Situation for California’s Poor and Vulnerable Citizens   CEO Message May 9, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: May 15 2008 12:07PM CPhA Joins Alliance in Filing Lawsuit Against the State of California's 10 Percent Reduction in Reimbursement for Medi-Cal On Monday, the attorneys for a coalition of providers filed a class action lawsuit against California in Los Angeles Superior Court to stop the 10 percent cuts. The coalition includes CPhA, the California Medical Association, the California Hospital Association, the California Dental Association, the California Association for Adult Day Services, the California chapter of the American College of Emergency Physicians and the California Association of Public Hospitals and Health Systems. This coalition is seeking a temporary injunction to stop these cuts from going into effect on July 1, 2008.   CEO Message May 2, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: May 2 2008 12:00AM Budget Cut Update This week we continued to move full steam ahead with our PR campaign. We had calls with many supporters around the state including pharmacists, the Alliance for Patient Care, our pharmacy coalition, APhA staff members and with the California Chronic Care Coalition (CCCC)...   CEO Message April 25, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Apr 25 2008 12:00AM On Monday, the first lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court to enjoin the 10 percent cut in Medi-Cal provider payments. The attorney who filed this suit is Lynn S. Carman of Novato. The suit was filed on behalf of the largest California independent living center, two southland pharmacies and two Medi-Cal recipients. We'll keep you posted on the progress of this action.   CEO Message April 18, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Apr 22 2008 6:57PM On Wednesday, CPhA hosted its Annual CPhA Legislative Day. It was a huge success as more than 375 pharmacists and student pharmacists, many wearing white coats, joined us in Sacramento. CPhA staff was able to make appointments with more than 2/3rds of the legislators and many of the visiting teams made additional appointments. During these visits, members discussed the Governor's cuts to Medi-Cal that begin on July 1, 2008 and urged legislators to vote YES on AB 2535 (CPhA sponsored), which deals with inadequate reimbursement to pharmacy providers. Additionally, they discussed our support if amended position on SB 1307, which will, among other things, extend the date for implementation of e-Pedigree for pharmacies to July 1, 2012. During the course of the day, we attended a rally at the Capitol in support of the Alzheimer's Association and its fight against the Governor's cuts. You may read our news release by clicking here. I'd also like to share with you some of the compliments we received for this year’s Legislative Day...   CEO Message April 4, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Apr 17 2008 2:39PM Update on 10 Percent Budget Cuts Over the course of the last week, nearly all of the elements of our plan to fight the 10% Medi-Cal cuts have sprung into action. We agreed to engage the same attorneys that NCPA and NACDS used to stop AMP implementation. We believe they have sound theories and a strong chance of prevailing. Additionally, we'll be joining the California Medical Association suit. The cost of dispensing study is fully underway and both chain and independent pharmacies will be contacted, starting next week, to get data into the system as quickly as possible. We plan to produce the first data set in May and will use this study as a comparison to the California study by Myers and Stauffer. Further, our PR campaign will begin to be visible next week. We have many other activities underway so please know that we are doing everything we possibly can and welcome your ideas and participation at any time. Contact me directly at lrolston@cpha.com.   CEO Message March 28, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Mar 27 2008 12:00AM Today, the Department of Health Care Services released the long overdue Myers & Stauffer study from last year on pharmacy dispensing and acquisition costs. As expected, the study concluded that the current Medi-Cal dispensing fee is well below the average cost of dispensing, finding that the statewide average (mean) cost of dispensing, weighted by Medi-Cal volume, was $10.81 per prescription. This result does not include any allowance for a reasonable profit for the pharmacy. Based on Myers & Stauffer report, the dispensing fee would need to be increased by almost 50% to cover actual dispensing costs. However, the report also concluded that pharmacies were still making adequate margin on the “spread” between what Medi-Cal pays for covered drugs and the pharmacies’ actual drug costs to more than compensate for the shortfall. The study did not, however, take into consideration in its analysis the impact of the shift to AMP-based reimbursement for all prescription drugs that was included in last year’s State Budget. That change will largely negate the margins Myers & Stauffer found related to drug product acquisition. CPhA will continue to analyze the entire report and will provide more information as it becomes available. You can view the report by clicking here.   CEO Message March 21, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Mar 21 2008 12:00AM Important Update and Action Requests Regarding the 10% Budget Cuts CPhA helped form a huge coalition of pharmacy partners and patient advocates to fight the 10% Medi-Cal cuts and to prevent the potential patient harm these cuts could cause. We are in the process of engaging a PR firm, a legal firm, a grassroots effort, media outreach, and more to protect California's pharmacy patients. This effort is going to be extremely costly and while the CPhA board allocated significant funding for this effort, we need your help as well. Today, we established a Pharmacy Defense Fund for California. You can make your contribution by clicking on the logo on at www.cpha.com.   CEO Message March 14, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Mar 26 2008 11:45AM Medi-Cal Provider Cuts Update On Monday, the Assembly Subcommittee on Health and Human Services met to consider the 10% budget cuts to Medi-Cal providers as well as potential solutions offered by the Legislative Analyst. President Paul Lofholm and Past Presidents John Tilley and Brian Komoto came to Sacramento to testify about the impact that these provider cuts will have on pharmacists, due to the fact that they cut the dispensing fee and the drug cost reimbursement. The group, which included Kathy Lynch and myself, Heidi Barsuglia with the California Retailers Association, Jennifer Hendrick Snyder with NACDS and several other lobbyists, met with many key legislators, staffers and decision makers to tell our story. The four hour hearing began at 4 p.m. and was extremely contentious. The testimony on behalf of pharmacy was very compelling and included excellent testimony by Paul, John and Brian. This was only the beginning of many hearings that will be called in the coming weeks. We have considerable work being done behind the scenes on this issue and we will keep you updated as we move forward.   CEO Message March 7, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Mar 7 2008 12:00AM CPhA Board Takes Action on 10% Budget Cuts This week, the Executive/Audit and Finance Committee and the full CPhA Board held two emergency conference calls to consider an urgent funding allocation to combat the 10 percent provider cuts. The Committee voted to recommend, and the board approved, significant funding for a seven pronged effort to protect pharmacy patients, both Medi-Cal and others, who would be seriously impacted if these cuts were to go through on July 1, 2008. These cuts will be devastating and may cause closures and cut backs at many pharmacies. The Board is very concerned that this will cause disruption in medication supplies for patients, potential destabilization for patients, longer lines, and could potentially contribute to more medication errors. They felt it was imperative that CPhA undertake a major effort to stop these cuts and help Californians avoid these problems. As we begin implementing our plans, we will provide you with more information.   CEO Message February 29, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Mar 5 2008 12:30PM Community pharmacy, both independents and chains, is expressing greater and greater concern over the 10 percent budget cut scheduled to go into effect on July 1, 2008. It will reduce Medi-Cal payments to pharmacy on both ingredient costs and dispensing fees. Considerable activity is underway to fight these cuts and to help the state find alternatives. This week, CPhA staff and leadership met with a number of concerned owner members to talk about specific strategies and directions. The plan and implementation timeline will be coming out shortly to outline our multi-pronged approach for fighting on behalf of community pharmacy and the many, many patients they serve, who could be seriously harmed by the Governor's actions.   CEO Message February 22, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Feb 22 2008 12:00AM LAO Revised Budget Proposal On Wednesday, the Legislative Analyst Office (LAO) released their report on the impact of the recently passed budget cuts for California. Click here to review the report in full. Note: provider cuts information is on pages 34-39. As you can see, the provider cuts to pharmacy are shown as $86 million, and taken with the federal match would total $172 million. These cuts to pharmacy reimbursements will be achieved when EDS calculates each payment to pharmacy and reduces that total by 10 percent, this includes a cut to the drug cost component as well as the dispensing fee. As I stated before, these cuts will be devastating. We will continue working to formulate the best possible strategy to combat these cuts. Please note that the cuts are due to begin on 7/01/08 at the beginning the 2008/2009 Fiscal Year and are scheduled to continue indefinitely.   CEO Message February 8, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Feb 14 2008 2:13PM Outlook 2008 is in full swing. The early numbers coming in show this year's Outlook to be every bit as successful as last year and likely to significantly surpass last year's numbers. Our annual conference began yesterday with CE, the patient counseling competition and the House of Delegates opening session, which included the Presidential address by the 2008 CPhA president, Paul Lofholm. Following the House of Delegates, two very fun social events took place including the McKesson sponsored President's Reception, which featured the band Mumbo Gumbo, and the sold-out Hygeia Bowl-A-thon! Everybody had a great time at these events.   CEO Message february 1, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Feb 1 2008 12:00AM The CPhA staff is busy putting the finishing touches on what promises to be an outstanding Outlook 2008 meeting in Sacramento next week. The meeting begins on Thursday at 9:00am, when the registration desk opens in the Hyatt Regency. We are eager to greet all CPhA members and their guests and look forward to all the great events we have lined up for you.   CEO Message January 25, 2008 Author: Lynn Rolston Last Updated: Jan 25 2008 12:00AM After the recent news coverage regarding Vytorin and Zetia, Richard K. Murray, Vice President, External Medical and Scientific Affairs, US Pharmaceuticals, Merck and Craig B. Granowitz, Vice President Global Medical Affairs, Schering-Plough, sent out an update letter regarding the products.   1 2 3 4 »