Medication Adherence, Value-Based Benefit Design to be Featured at 2011 Annual Meetings

WisconsinRx/National CooperativeRx has announced the dates of its two annual meetings to be held in 2011; the first in Anchorage, Alaska and the second in Madison, Wisconsin.

The Alaska meeting, in partnership with the Health Care Cost Management Corporation of Alaska, will be held March 23 and 24, 2011.  The agenda will feature speakers on the timely topic of Value Based Benefit Design, thought by many to be the future of benefit design. The keynote address will be given by John Miall, one of the visionaries behind the Asheville Project, credited by many to have started the trend toward Value Based Benefit Design.

The Wisconsin meeting will be held April 27 and will feature presentations around the topic of medication adherence.  Providing the keynote address will be Dr. Jan Berger, Medical Director of the Midwest Business Group on Health, who will present key findings about the cost of medication non-compliance. CVS Caremark will also present data from their research partnership with Harvard that examines what incentives and tools are needed to create behavioral change.

Both meetings promise to give attendees the tools and information they are looking for to affect positive change among enrollees. Watch for your invitation via mail and email!

HealthDay. Pediatricians issue new vaccine recommendations. (Goodwin, 2/2) Full story

Consumer Reports. Consumer publication issues ratings on heart disease screening tests and recommends which ones consumers should probably skip. (2/3) Report

Pew Internet and American Life Project. Health information remains one of the most important subjects that internet users research online, with 80% of internet users gathering health information online. Symptoms and treatments continue to dominate health searches, but drug safety is among eight new topics included in the current survey. (Fox, 2/1) Report

HealthDay. Confusion caused by look-alike and sound-alike names contributes to a large number of the painkiller prescription errors that occur in hospitals, U.S. researchers report. (Preidt, 2/1) Full story

USA Today. Unprecedented shortages of injectable drugs have forced doctors to resort to medications that are less safe or postpone or cancel procedures, often at the last minute, according to the Food and Drug Administration and health care groups. (Rubin, 2/2) Full story

Dow Jones. Drug maker AstraZeneca and health insurer WellPoint have teamed up to conduct what they're calling "real-world" studies to determine the most effective and economical treatments for chronic illnesses and other diseases. (Loftus, 2/2) Full story 

Wall Street Journal. The newly minted chief executives of two of the world's biggest drug makers sketched out sharply divergent strategies for reviving their businesses this week, setting up a showdown over which is the better strategy for the industry's future. (Rockoff, 2/4) Full Story

McClatchy.  The Senate blocked the push for a broad repeal of the health care reform law this week, but the chamber did approve a measure to delete a reporting provision in the law that triggered significant opposition from the business community. (Lightman, 2/2) Full story

Health Care Lawyer Blog.  A Florida judge finds the individual mandate in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act unconstitutional, and because there is no severability clause in the bill says the entire law must be struck down. Blog post

The coalition currently is looking for dedicated people to fill two important roles in our organization: 

• Sales and Management Associate. Read the position description. 
• Communications Specialist.  Read the position description.