Letter From The Editor

This could be a bad summer for patients if things stay as they are. First off it appears that unless the Senate moves within the next day that Carriers for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) will begin processing two weeks’ worth of suspended Medicare claims at rates …

When is good enough, good enough? This past month I have been working on a CE/CME for pharmacists and physicians. The focus has been on diabetes control in the long term care and assisted living facilities. I started on this path because of a conversation with a former colleague who …

Sometimes you like to take credit for things that you had no effect on but happened anyway. That’s the case with a bill now in front of the United States House of Representatives. Three weeks ago our intern, Issak Smith, broke the story: Medicare Part D: A Boon for Industry …

There are winds of change in the Pharma business that are going to affect the way things get done. Last week Pfizer announced they were going to eliminate 6,000 jobs and eight manufacturing plants. And while drug prices made their steepest gain in almost a decade, the current business model just …

It appears that all the hubbub about tight control of glucose and increased mortality which has been in the news for years may be wrong. When the ACCORD study first came out, the increase in the mortality rate was attributed to intensive control and hypoglycemia associated with tight control but …

Every time we send you a newsletter it is packed full of information about new drugs, therapies and ideas for improving patient care. As our staff researches these articles we are often fascinated by the discovery process and how much work goes into bringing these ideas to market. Then I …

Recently I have had more than one patient on a Medicare Part D Plan come for a refill and hand me a copay discount card they received from their clinician’s office and say they have used before. I explained to them that this cannot be used as it says clearly …

Dear Clinician: If you could make sure all of your patients received diabetes education and extended diabetes management from the first day of diagnosis, would you be interested? If this could be done either in your office or close by, would you be interested? If this could be done with …

The face of medicine is up for another change this week as the first ARB becomes available generically. Many of our patients have been prevented from getting drugs in this class due to the high cost of the brand names. Now with the approval of generic losartan potassium tablets more …

This week, the diabetes news included everything from the simple to the complex. On the simple side there were studies showing the value of food choices. Dr. Nancy F. Krebs, professor of pediatrics and head of the division of pediatric nutrition at the University of Colorado, completed a positive successful …