How Pain Score Data Supports Diversion Investigations
By Sandy Still Drug diversion in healthcare settings remains a persistent challenge. While technology has significantly improved diversion monitoring capabilities, one critical piece of evidence has largely remained siloed in electronic medical records: pain scores. Integrating this data into automated diversion surveillance workflows allows investigators to validate whether medications administered at the bedside match what […]
Closing the Gap: When RFID and Pharmacy Automation Data Work Together
By Sean Gilman Hospital pharmacy teams manage medication inventory across a vast network, including central pharmacies, operating rooms, infusion centers, clinics, and satellite locations. During a supply disruption, inventory visibility gaps across these locations create real risk. When responding to a medication shortage today, pharmacy teams typically start by checking automated dispensing cabinets and carousels […]
340B in the Crosshairs: Stacking Financial Pressures Are Forcing Site-by-Site Decisions on Program Value
By Lauren LeMoine, PharmD, MBA Senior Director of Clinical Strategy, Bluesight For years, hospital and health-system pharmacy leaders have treated the 340B Drug Pricing Program as a dependable source of margin: enroll eligible sites, capture the savings, and manage the compliance requirements that come with them. That assumption no longer holds. In recent conversations with […]
Pharmacy Can No Longer Afford to Buy on Cost Alone
By Jill Costa For years, pharmacy procurement teams have had the same goals: minimize drug spend, negotiate better contracts, and find cheaper alternatives. In fact, roughly 72% of pharmacy leaders list reducing drug spend as a top priority, and among organizations with defined cost-savings targets, about 79% are expected to find at least $250,000 in […]
Reducing FSA Card Declines Through Better Pharmacy Payment Workflows
By Pete Uselman Under IRS guidance, merchants outside certain healthcare categories generally need an Inventory Information Approval System, or IIAS, to accept flexible spending account (FSA), health savings account (HSA), and health reimbursement arrangement (HRA) debit cards. It’s not simply a matter of routing another transaction within a platform that already accepts credit and debit […]
Scratching More Than the Surface: A Review of Topical Pain Medication
Contributed by Mark Garofoli, PharmD, MBA, BCGP, CPE, CTTS Topical analgesics are widely used for the treatment of localized musculoskeletal and neuropathic pain and represent an important yet often omitted component of multimodal, non-opioid pain management. By delivering medication directly to the site of pain, topical therapies can reduce systemic drug exposure while maintaining therapeutic […]
From Firefighting to Flourishing: Accreditation Readiness Is About People and Policies
By Kelly M. Lee Specialty pharmacy teams often describe the weeks leading up to an accreditation survey as a never-ending fire drill. Whether the accreditor is URAC, the Accreditation Commission for Health Care (ACHC), The Joint Commission, or the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy (NABP), the pattern is remarkably consistent. The survey window opens, […]
The Discharge Medication Reconciliation Gap: Why Pharmacist Review Shouldn’t End at Admission
By Brian Wenger, PharmD, BCPS Medication reconciliation is an established part of medication safety in pharmacy practice. Health systems invest substantial time and resources in obtaining accurate medication histories, reconciling home medications at admission, and building these processes into electronic health records (EHRs). However, hospitalization itself can substantially change a patient’s medication regimen. At discharge, […]
Kristen Konstantinidis on Giving AssureCare a Story the Market Can Repeat: An RXinsider Interview
By Joshua Murdock, PharmD, BCBBS AssureCare is an AI-powered population health management company committed to connecting care for health plans and pharmacies. Its AssureRx platform helps pharmacies get credentialed, enrolled, and paid for the clinical services their pharmacists provide. In September 2026, Kristen Konstantinidis was named Senior Vice President (SVP) of Marketing and Communications at […]
PBM Reform and Rural Pharmacy Access: A Mississippi Case Study
By Breck Rice, MBA Pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are often discussed in terms of reimbursement rates, direct and indirect remuneration (DIR) fees, formularies, network contracts, clawbacks, and other complex elements of the prescription drug system. Those issues are important, but they can make it easy to overlook the people who experience the consequences of those […]
