Looking Back: Pharmacy Issues in 2019

    Looking Back: Pharmacy Issues in 2019 January 30, 2020 [smart_track_player url="https://media.blubrry.com/darshantalks/content.blubrry.com/darshantalks/ep157_looking_back_at_pharmacy_issues_from_2019.mp3" title="Looking Back: Pharmacy Issues in 2019" color="#FF5722" social_linkedin="true" social_email="true" tweet_text="Check this @darshantalks podcast on #pharmacy issues in 2019! #pharmacists"] [learn_more caption="Read Transcript" align="right"] Darshan: This conversation is going to be really, really interesting. I'm looking forward to having this conversation because of my own background as a pharmacist and because of my own background as a lawyer. Today's talk is going to be about the top eight issues that happened in pharmacy in 2019 that are going to affect how pharmacy occurs in the next decade, shall we say, and what has been happening that will change the impact of pharmacy. Intro: This is the Darshan Talks Podcast, Regulatory Guy, Irregular Podcast with host Darshan Kulkarni. You can find the show on twitter @DarshanTalks or the show's website at darshantalks.com. Darshan: So the number one issue I would talk about is the rise of cannabis. And as you may know, and there are numerous talks that I've put out there already. There have been several states that actually have legalized the use of medical cannabis. There have also been States that have legalized the use of recreational cannabis. Darshan: However, you should also consider that simultaneously there is a federal law that makes the general use of what we call medical cannabis to be illegal. On the other hand, there are concerns, well there are some advantages in that you have the Farm Bill which goes out there and actually says that in specific situations you can actually wind up using CBD in specific scenarios. It's important to recognize what that means. Darshan: For example, if you're making claims, medical claims using CBD, you're probably going to have problems. There have been numerous citations for companies that are making medical claims. If you're a pharmacist either selling them or making medical claims for CBD, stay tuned, be careful, there may be issues. There have been in the last year. The FDA itself has actually taken a more proactive role. They've gone after CBD companies and THC companies for misbranding and adulteration issues, so stay tuned, look out for those as we continue. Darshan: The next issue that's popped up over time has been the issue of telepharmacy. Telepharmacy is, as some of you may know, is the use of, I think I'm going to call it Skype, or call it some of these web conferencing services. Obviously it's not as simple as that because you have some protection issues that have to kick in. But using a tools like Epic, people are using ways to virtually consult and connect with patients, with other pharmacists, to provide better care to their patients. There has been a rise of this primarily in the West Coast and in the Midwest. I would expect that you would see the East Coast starting to join this more and more. The East Coast tends to be a little bit more conservative, so we'll see how that plays itself out, but there has been a rise in uptake for telepharmacy as well. Darshan: The next thing to think about is the TCP and unwanted calls. So essentially if you're using unsolicited auto dial calls, you may have concerns under the TCPA. CVS Pharmacy agreed to pay $50 million to resolve 8 class action claims that had made unsolicited auto dial flu shot reminder calls to consumers. This went out to about 230,000 individuals and they were called with a message offering a CVS Pharmacy shopping pass during this flu shot reminder calling campaign. So again, when big players like CVS are being targeted,