A group of legislators is calling on the Department of Justice to dig into whether pharmacy benefit managers played a role in the opioid epidemic. The representatives point to recent reports that suggest the three largest PBMs worked together to funnel patients to OxyContin prescriptions. "Recent reports, including confidential files and information from CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Optum Rx, suggests the three largest PBMs colluded and conspired to steer patients towards Oxycontin in exchange for $400 million," the legislators wrote.
Health Systems Express Concern About HTI-2 Imaging Link Proposed Rule
In its HTI-2 Proposed Rule published in August 2024, Assistant Secretary for Technology Policy/Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT (ASTP) noted that diagnostic images are often stored in systems external to the EHR, such as picture archiving and communication systems (PACS) or vendor neutral archives (VNAs), and that promoting access to images via EHR hyperlink functionality may encourage more widespread adoption and integration of these already existing pathways and reduce inefficient CD-ROM-dependent exchange. In the proposed rule, the requirement would go into effect by Jan. 1, 2028.
House lawmakers passed a bill to improve various services for veterans. However, the legislation left out provisions that would have required the Department of Veterans Affairs to strengthen oversight of its Oracle Health EHR modernization project, NextGov reported Nov. 19. The bill, called the Senator Elizabeth Dole 21st Century Veterans Healthcare and Benefits Improvement Act, was passed on Nov. 18. It included a section with proposals aimed at improving the troubled rollout of the VA's new Oracle Health EHR system but was later removed from the legislative package.
Amid ongoing concerns about the cost and supply of GLP-1s, a new study suggests that a wide swath of American adults would benefit from the drugs. Researchers at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) estimated that 137 million people are eligible for semaglutide drugs, sold most famously under the brand name Ozempic, for either weight loss, diabetes management or cardiovascular event prevention. The data, published in JAMA Cardiology, highlight the need to continue finding ways to ensure equitable access to GLP-1s, the researchers said.
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