Pharmacy Benefits, Pharmacy Law & Career Development Week incoming 10/9/22

This newsletter is a companion to weekly live audio updates from Erin at LinkedIn, typically on Saturday mornings at 9 am ET. Opinions expressed in this email are the author's own, and not necessarily those of her past or present employers.

Happy Autumn Weekend, everyone! ??

This weekend, (and every weekend) our focus is 3-fold: Pharmacy Benefits, Pharmacy Law and Career Development. Here's what happened this past week:

Pharmacy Law

We're starting with pharmacy law this week due to the fact that the American Society for Pharmacy Law (or ASPL) had 2 major announcements this week:

1. The ASPL Annual Meeting Nov 3-6 2022 is still ON! We have assessed along with member boots on the ground that the Naples area for our annual conference is still generally open for business, so we're going to meet and celebrate another wild year - together! For more, check out the agenda and registration info here.
2. ASPL also has Season 2 of its Podcast UP! Season 2 of our podcast has a name, Post- Scrip, and you can check it out here on Spotify.

1. Duh, DUR - In honor of Pharmacists' Month, I posted about one of the reasons why that prescription takes so long at the pharmacy counter, darn it: drug utilization review, or DUR. The next time your pharmacist catches a drug-drug interaction or has to call the doctor to clarify your script - please don't give them a hard time, but THANK THEM, because they're trying to make sure that you have the right and safest drug possible for you or your family member - they are the healthcare patient advocate's last line of defense.
2. Health Policy Litigation - I try to keep my eyes on as much as I can around litigation within healthcare, and this week also stumbled upon Health Affairs' podcast on healthcare policy litigation. It's really good - easy-to-consume bites of what's going on in our healthcare space inside courtrooms (that felt weird to type, but I'm sure you get it.)

Pharmacy Benefits

1. Let's move on over to the day job this week at CostPlusDrugs.com - another banner week of benefits announcements, this time with Capital Blue Cross!
2. Yes, we still have jobs at Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company, PBC, we added some new drugs to the fold this week, and we dropped some prices (note: not raised, which is unlike pretty much anything else on the planet right now.)

1. POLL this week - it's 4Q, and that means healthcare benefits are changing in the workplace for up to 70% of Americans. Also hearing from broker/advisor friends that healthcare premium quotes for 2023 are coming back up, 12-17% over 2022! Take our poll: have you heard yet if your healthcare benefits are going up, down, changing, or staying the same for 2023? Participate here.
2. Reach for the (lower) stars? - Medicare star ratings evidently went down for 2023. Here's how to use them to your advantage.
3. Pharmacists - don't forget the Pharmacy Rebellion Survey - it's over at the Pharmacy MTMS group.

Career Development

1. Evidently, "Let them eat cake" doesn't work for the majority of the audience on the poll last week, about whether or not you'd like to receive a resume...on a cake. Although 24% of you said it would depend upon the flavor of the ??.
2. A phone call with a friend revealed a dilemma that many of us have faced at some point in time in our own careers: when a new job just isn't a good fit and isn't working out. Raise your hand if you've experienced this at any point in your career. ??♀?

Fortunately, I am not personally in this situation right now, but I've definitely been-there-done-that when it comes to the new job just being a terrible fit - whether the work itself is terrible, the boss is straight from Hades, or both. A few challenges include a toxic work environment, not feeling appreciated, and what I think is worst of all: not being able to employ your strengths.

1. What to do - if that new job just isn't working out. 1. Give yourself some slack - set a time-bound free zone where you can really give yourself a break to explore whether or not the job is a good fit. One bad experience right out of the gate could be a fluke. If you notice a pattern, then it's time to start making some tough choices for getting out. 2. Right now, the jobs are still relatively o'plenty.
2. If you know you need to exit stage right - Here are some great articles for you to explore: 1. What to do if you already hate your new job, 2. 10 Things You can Do When You Hate Your New Job, and 3 - maybe, after doing all the hard work on yourself, you just need to quit.

That's all I've got for the week - have a great mid-Rocktober ??, and pharmacists - happy Pharmacists' Month! ??