The sum of all bills

If and when you give patients the Covid-19 antivirals molnupiravir or Paxlovid, NCPA explains that your reimbursement will (likely) be the SUM of your regular contracted dispensing fee plus an “enhanced dispensing fee” claimed in the incentive fee field.

Claims should include the professional service code “PE” in order to trigger the PBM logic to pay an incentive fee.

And yes, we chuckled at the phrase “PBM logic.”

AND MY AXE!

Join the fellowship — at least for a few hours, when the Academy of Employee Pharmacists is hosting an afternoon of it at the Scofflaw Brewing Company in Atlanta. Even better, student pharmacists are invited as long as they promise to keep the hooliganism to a minimum.

It’s Saturday, January 22 from 2:00 to 7:00pm and costs a mere $10, which includes two drink tickets.

You need to register so they know how many to expect — click here to do just that.

The writers are getting lazy

“Cyprus Finds Covid-19 Infections That Combine Delta and Omicron“ — they’re calling it “deltacron.”

=BUT=

After fan pushback about just how lame that storyline was, we get, “Experts cast doubts over reported ‘deltacron’ variant, say likely due to lab contamination“.

Quick shout-out

… to Pamela Shipley, named the new regional president for Kaiser Permanente’s Georgia operation.

Long-Covid protection

People who are vaccinated are unlikely to get Covid bad enough that it sends them to the hospital (or kills them), but the question still out there has been “What about long Covid?”

Cheating death is great, but it’s less great if you’re gonna spend a year with brain fog, headaches, shortness of breath, and bitterness toward the world.

Good news, then: Israeli researchers found that, if you’ve had at least two mRNA vaccinations, you also have a much lower risk of long Covid.

[F]ully vaccinated (2 or more doses) individuals were less likely than unvaccinated individuals to report any of these symptoms by 64% [fatigue], 54% [headache], 57% [weakness], and 68% [muscle pain] respectively.

No word on brain fog, but let‘s assume that’s covered too.

You may now go to sleep

Idorsia’s insomnia drug, Quviviq (pronounced “That Q drug that helps me sleep”) has received FDA approval. That is all.

Something to sneeze at

It seems that being infected by a common cold could give some protection from Covid-19. Which, when you think about it, kinda makes sense — some colds are caused by coronaviruses.

“We found that high levels of pre-existing T cells, created by the body when infected with other human coronaviruses like the common cold, can protect against COVID-19 infection.“

Of course, it doesn’t protect you completely, but it’s another brick in the wall — a wall that hopefully includes vaccination, smart socializing, and hand washing. Always hand washing.

Oh, and this is cool:

The researchers also say their findings provide a blueprint for a second-generation, universal vaccine that could prevent infection from current and future SARS-CoV-2 variants, including Omicron.

Just don’t threaten their maple syrup

In Quebec, they found a way to convince people to get vaccinated: Requiring proof of vaccinations at critical locations. “First-dose vaccinations quadruple in Quebec ahead of restrictions at liquor and cannabis stores, eh“.

The next step toward achieving 100% vaccination: Similar restrictions at hockey games and Tim Hortons.

If you’ve isolated for five days, the CDC says it’s OK to go swimming 15 minutes after eating

And more, courtesy of Mashable.