Scam alert

You almost have to give these folks credit for creativity. The hot new scam hitting pharmacies: fax and email notifications about a (non-existent) recall of oxycodone — they even include the brand and NDC number!

If you get one of these, save everything, call your distributor to be sure, and then notify the Pharmaceutical Cargo Security Coalition with an email to cforsaith@hda.org or a call to (401) 623-1344 ASAP.

Oh, oh, oh I’m on fire….

The only things burning this holiday should be Chanukah candles and yule logs.

Fight gonorrhea and chlamydia with GPhA’s webinar: Expedited protection for the holidays and learn how help the partners of at-risk patients avoid any unwanted gifts.

“Expedited protection for the holidays” is tonight — December 20 — from 7:30–8:30 pm. It’s just $20 for GPhA members and gives an hour of CE credit. Click here for info and to register!

Disinfecting your lips

The headlines: “Researchers develop antimicrobial lipstick using cranberry extract” and “A deep red, cranberry-tinted lipstick that’s also antimicrobial”.

The reality: Spanish chemists created a lip balm using cranberry extract, which has antimicrobial properties.

As cool as it sounds, while it kills viruses quickly, it takes hours to kill bacteria and fungi. And even then it’s only the lips that are protected. If you’re close enough to catch viruses from someone’s lips, you’re probably exposed to other bits, too.

Still, good news for germophobes.

Have you considered charging people who email you?

It seems some doctors are doing just that. Some patients, they say, are emailing them questions “so complex that they require the level of medical expertise normally dispensed during an office visit.”

The solution: Charge the patients for answering.

Although they probably won’t charge for a quick query, they can. “[D]octors are permitted to bill Medicare for as little as 5 minutes of time spent on an online message.” And some messages clearly cross the line into a serious consultation. But what about the middle ground? It’s up to patients to watch their bills … and their questions.

The charges vary for each patient and hospital system, with messages costing as little as $3 for Medicare patients to as much $160 for the uninsured. In some cases, the final bill depends on how much time the doctor spends responding.

Real quick: what to know about the flu this year

1. The season may be peaking. Then again, it’s such a weird year (and those holiday dinners are coming) it’s hard to be sure. But CDC numbers show flu cases declining slightly in some areas.
2. Infections aren’t more severe this year, there’s just a lot more of them.
3. The season also seems worse because there’s Covid-19 and RSV mixed in — plus all those drug shortages.

Clearing brain fog

Yale psychiatric researchers think they may have a treatment for long-Covid brain fog.

That treatment: a combination of ADHD drug guanfacine and N-acetylcysteine (NAC), an anti-oxidant used for the treatment of traumatic brain injury.

Because both are FDA-approved, the researchers were able to test them on a small group of volunteers, and “The combined therapy […] was successful in relieving brain fog for their small cohort of patients.”

Their guess is that brain fog is caused by a combination stress and the inflammation of neurons, both of which guanfacine and NAC help treat. But you know the mantra: More studies are needed.

Or maybe not. As one of the researchers put it, if you’re suffering from brain fog, “You don’t need to wait to be part of a research trial. You can ask your physician — these drugs are affordable and widely available.”

More drug shortages

Eli Lilly’s Trulicity (dulaglutide) and Mounjaro are both on the edge of shortage, according to the FDA.

While shipments are ongoing for both drugs, the FDA has warned of “intermittent periods of backorder” because of high demand.

This isn’t a surprise — the company had warned that Novo Nordisk’s shortages meant higher demand for those drugs, which are super popular for off-label weight loss.

Shortages and the supply chain

For a solid overview of the drug-shortage issue — the whats, whys, hows, and whos — Axios has a not-too-long, even-handed look at the issue(s). It’ll give you a solid overview for use at the water cooler, with plenty of links if you want to do a deep dive. Check it out.

In case you’re curious: healthcare spending in 2021

Americans spent $4.3 trillion-with-a-T on healthcare in 2021 — almost $13,000 per person.

That’s a jump of 2.7% over the year before … but 2.7% is nuthin’:

• Spending rose a lot more in 2020 — up 10.7% from 2019;
• The 2.7% increase in 2021 came despite inflation in the 7–8% range;
• It also came despite more people having (and using) health insurance thanks to broader adoption of Obamacare marketplaces and pandemic-rule Medicaid expansion.

Despite all that, spending only increased a little. (Medicare only accounted for about 21% of that, by the way.)

Interesting side note: For people who pay cash for their healthcare, October and November 2022 saw a drop in prices for the fifth straight month. What does that mean? No one knows!