They didn’t teach Latin at Gottschalk Jr High

How about a little Latin to add some class to this newsletter:

“Omne trium perfectum”…or in today’s culture, “Good things come in threes.”

Maybe not always — sometimes bad things come in threes. The perfect example is the three-headed monster that is playing havoc with your drug costs and your patients’/claimants’ well-being:

• Compounding Pharmaceuticals

• Physician Dispensing

• Rogue Pharmacies

Compounding Pharmaceuticals

They are loosely regulated and in some situations dangerous. The latest local headline is National Respiratory Services, whose executives pled guilty to misbranding and altering the drugs they compounded while defrauding Medicare and misleading doctors/patients.

Physician Dispensing

In limited situations and unique specialties, one can make a case for physician dispensing. However, better pricing, formularies and oversight come from an aggressive and transparent PBM with competitive pricing, value-added services and independent Utilization Review.

Rogue Mail-Order Pharmacies

They tend to push the envelope, billing more than standard fee schedules. You may not have heard of them yet, but they are coming to one of your complex cases very soon. In the workers’ compensation arena, we control these through our certified managed care filing, limited provider networks and pharmaceutical Utilization Review.

“Qui possit facere meliora.”…or “let those who can, do better.”