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Hope Clinic physician assistant Matt Pierce examines patient Luis Hualinga at the clinic in Midvale on Wednesday, Jan. 6, 2021. Two bills to be considered by the Utah Legislature would broaden the role of physician assistants to let them offer mental health therapy and respond during a health emergency.
Jeffrey D. Allred, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY As Utah and the entire nation grapple with a health and mental health care shortage in rural and underserved communities, one group of medical providers say they’re uniquely poised to respond physician assistants.
But they contend antiquated laws requiring them to work under the supervision of a physician are holding them back.
In Featured, News by Ged Kenslea
December 21, 2020
The 340B Drug Price Program is under attack by the drug industry and its consultant vendor, Kalderos, as they attempt to brazenly convert the program from a drug discount that manufacturers must provide to nonprofit hospitals and clinics to a rebate program,
setting Kalderos up as the arbiter of who will get the rebate and when
By law, drug manufacturers must provide a discount on drug pricing to covered entities (nonprofit hospitals and clinics) under 340B through an agreement with the government as a condition of Medicaid and Medicare covering their drugs
WASHINGTON (December 21, 2020) AIDS Healthcare Foundation (AHF) sounded the alarm today at reports that drug companies – through their vendor Kalderos – are moving forward with plans to undermine the 340B drug program – to the harm of safety net providers, who are already struggling to maintain services to their populations in the midst of a pandemic (340B
  Courtesy photo
Fauquier Hospital began administering the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine to its health care workers Dec. 15, according to hospital spokeswoman Sarah Cubbage. Daniel Reno, 50, received his inoculation Thursday afternoon. âI didnât even feel it,â he said. âI was talking to someone about photography, about my SONY camera. It was painless. And I havenât had any issues since.âÂ
Reno has been with Fauquier Hospital for only two weeks. He is a cardiovascular technologist, working with urgent and emergent patients.Â
He said he helped to care for COVID-19 patients frequently in his former job, but hasnât yet at Fauquier. The coronavirus has touched his life in other ways too. âA boy I graduated with â he is 50 [years old] too â has COVID. Heâs been on a vent for 24 days.â A co-workerâs father died of COVID, said Reno, and his niece has had the disease as well.Â
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On December 14, 2020, the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) published a final rule (Final Rule) in the Federal Register defining an administrative dispute resolution (ADR) process for the 340B Drug Pricing Program (340B Program). The Final Rule takes effect 30 days after that date of publication, on January 13, 2021. The Final Rule establishes an ADR process for two types of disputes:
“Claims by covered entities that may have been overcharged for covered outpatient drugs purchased from manufacturers”; and
“Claims by manufacturers of 340B drugs, after a manufacturer has conducted an audit of a covered entity . . . . that a covered entity may have violated the prohibitions against duplicate discounts [i.e., that a Medicaid rebate was invoiced for a drug purchased at the 340B ceiling price] or diversion [i.e., that the covered entity transferred 340B drugs to a person that is not a 340B ‘patie