On the Road to Value-Based Benefit Design was the topic of the National CooperativeRx/HCCMCA Annual Client Meeting in Anchorage Alaska last week.  John Miall, one of the innovators behind the Asheville Project, Jeff Schulte of Axia Strategies and Eric Samaniego of Alere provided valuable information to attendees about creating healthier employees and understanding value based benefit design. View presentations from the meeting here.

Also, if you need help dealing with the onslaught of federal regulations, we are again offering a $200 discount to members and stakeholders that wish to attend the Chicago Health and Welfare Plan Management for Mid-Sized Employers conference, June 7-10.  Take advantage of additional early bird discounts by registering before May 10, 2011.

Over 30 educational sessions will be offered, including presentations from two of our own:

• Managing the Pharmacy Benefit - Wayne Salverda, R.Ph. on Wednesday June 8 from 10:30 am - 11:30 am
• The Power of Cooperative Drug Purchasing for Employers and Their Covered Members - Mary Borland on Thursday June 9 from 3:30 pm - 4:30 pm  

To Register:  Call the conference registrar at 800-864-2063 and mention us.  Or, register online at www.ucs-edu.net and enter the code CL-NCR.

Drug Store News. "Dispense-as-written" prescriptions are exacerbating medication nonadherence and costing the healthcare system billions according to a new study by researchers at Harvard University Brigham and Women's Hospital and CVS Caremark. (Alexander, 3/25) Full story

HHS.  The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services unveiled an innovative new website to help parents and other consumers learn about the most effective way to protect themselves and their children from infectious diseases and learn about immunization. (3/30) Release

Superior Telegram.  The state of Wisconsin says it has reached a $4.2 million settlement with three drug makers which the state alleged had defrauded the Medicaid and BadgerCare Plus programs. (AP, 3/28) Full story

Wall Street Journal. For developers of new drugs and treatments, one of the toughest hurdles has nothing to do with medicine. It's recruiting patients for clinical trials. (Corbett Dooren, 3/28) Full story

NPR. Pregnant women will still be able to get a drastically cheaper version of a new expensive drug that prevents premature birth, federal health officials said Wednesday. (AP, 3/30) Full story

CBS.  Are four months of life worth $93,000? Medicare officials seem to think so. They said Wednesday that the program will pay that much for Provenge, a first-of-a-kind therapy that can give men with incurable prostate cancer an extra four months to live. Full story 

New York Times.  The Supreme Court hears arguments about whether generic drug makers can be sued if they have the same warning label as their brand name equivalent and that label includes faulty information. Its decision could have a huge impact on prices. (Liptak, 3/30) Full story