In the 2017 budget released last week, the federal government said it’s aiming to lower pharmaceutical prices and improve access to prescription medications through significant investments in a variety of health-care agencies. The government has committed $140.3 million over five years, starting in 2017-2018, to Health Canada, the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board and the Canadian Agency for […]
A group of Toronto physicians have drafted a list of 125 essential medicines for use in Canada, publishing their findings in the Canadian Medical Association Journal’s online publication CMAJ Open. Provincial formularies that list thousands of medications — the Ontario Drug Benefit formulary lists 3,800 drugs, for example — make it difficult for physicians to […]
British Columbia’s Pharmacare program will expand its drug coverage for hepatitis C treatments in March as a result of successful negotiations brokered by the pan-Canadian Pharmaceutical Alliance. PharmaCare is expanding the criteria to provide coverage to more patients living with the disease in March. From 2018, PharmaCare will provide coverage for any British Columbian living […]
The federal government should allow each province to decide which health-care services would best serve their populations, a report from the Montreal Economic Institute argues. Ottawa plans to force the provinces to spend a portion of the federal health transfer on specific areas, such as mental-health programs and home-care services. “Health care is an area […]
An argument for national pharmacare is the number of older Canadians who either don’t fill prescriptions or skip doses because they’re too expensive, a new study published in the Canadian Medical Association Journal suggests. “Universal access to necessary medicines is one of the measurable goals of the United Nations drive for universal health coverage in all countries,” wrote the […]
British drug maker AstraZeneca is considering acquiring cancer-drug developer Acerta Pharma, which operates in the Netherlands and California, The New York Times reports. The news comes at a time when the pharmaceutical giant tries to grow its cancer treatment options. It remains unclear if AstraZeneca will finalize such a deal or what the terms of […]
At a luncheon last week for the benefits industry, the Ontario Pharmacists Association (OPA) unveiled its chronic disease management program for diabetes, developed with the workplace in mind. OPA is making the pitch to work directly with insurance carriers or plan sponsors to implant the program as a coaching service for eligible plan members. It […]
For every dollar invested in pharmacist services, many more will be saved because plan members with chronic conditions will be healthier—and may even be able to drop medications they no longer need. Such was the case put forward by presenters at the 2015 Pharmacy Solutions in Drug Plan Management conference in October in Toronto. While […]
Pharmacists Mike Boivin, John Papastergiou and Hitesh Pandya kicked things off with a ground-level view of what happens at the dispensary counter with plan members. In one case, a patient had been using samples for an antidepressant from his physician. When he learned his plan did not cover the drug, he paid for the medication […]
On-site wellness clinics can be an effective entry point for pharmacy services. Based on its data from such programs in the workplace, MHCSI Managed Health Care Services Inc. has found that about a third of plan members are at risk of chronic disease and a third are at very high risk, noted Leanne MacFarlane, MHCSI’s […]