Earlier this week, the future of health care reform was significantly altered.

On Tuesday, Republican candidate Scott Brown (R-MA) won a special election to fill the Senate seat formerly held by Ted Kennedy. Brown’s election means that Republicans now have 41 members in the Senate, thus ending the Democratic “supermajority” of 60.

Senator-elect Brown opposed the current health care reform efforts and his election would enable Senate Republicans to filibuster any health care compromise. In light of the Massachusetts election, Congressional Democratic leadership and the Obama Administration have been working throughout the week to develop a strategy to move forward. Although a broad overhaul of the health care system seems less likely now than in previous months, lawmakers are considering a number of strategies that could help achieve the President’s top domestic priority. While many ideas have been offered, with just a few days to digest the impact of the Massachusetts election, no decisions have been made regarding the next steps for health care reform. Some key Members of Congress, such as Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT), are asking for a brief recess from health care reform to focus on other issues including, unemployment and the economy.
Read what's next with HCR

Reports also indicate that the House will vote on the merged HCR bill by January 25.

APhA sent out an Action Alert to all APhA members on the merging of the pharmacy provisions in the House and Senate health care reform proposals - the Affordable Health Care for America Act (H.R. 3962) and the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (H.R. 3590) - into a final health care reform bill.
Reports indicate that the House and Senate are on the verge of finalizing the merger of their health care reform bills. From what we understand, the bill will be transmitted to the Congressional Budget Office to score the bill's cost in the next few days. If true, the release of the final HCR bill will be sometime next week. More Information

FOR YOUR INFORMATION-- Re: PROPOFOL 1% injection

In response to recent concerns about offers for certain Propofol 1% injection products that appear to be outside of the established distribution pathway, FDA's Drug Shortages Team would like to share the following information, which may be of interest to your members:
Propofol 1% Injection has been in short supply for approximately 2 months due to manufacturing issues. In response to the drug shortage, APP Pharmaceuticals is shipping Fresenius Propoven(r) 1% (propofol 1%) Injection directly to hospitals/surgery centers from their Chicago, IL location. Purchase of Propoven(r) through any other source (also known as "gray market distributors") is not recommended because the quality of the Propoven(r) from another source cannot be assured. Any offer to sell Propoven(r) by an entity other than APP Pharmaceuticals should be reported to drugshortages@fda.hhs.gov.
For additional information:

In preparation for the 2010 Oklahoma Legislative Session, the following update

1. The Oklahoma State Legislature by requirement of the State Constitution will convene for the 2010 Session on Monday, February 1st.
2. Also per the State Constitution, the 2010 Session must adjourn no later than the last Friday in May -- in 2010 that is May 28th.
3. The deadline for requesting bills to be introduced in the 2010 Session has passed and bills are now being written by Legislative Staff. We expect that we will start having access to "some bills" by sometime in early in January. Based on prior years, we hope to have the majority of bills available for review by mid-January. We will be reviewing these bills and will be developing a tracking list.
4. The state's revenue picture for next year continues to look bleak. The National Conference of State Legislature's recently recognized the Oklahoma State Budget as the most "upside down" -- with a projected shortfall of 18.5%. Arizona was second on NCSL's list with a shortfall of 18%, while Illinois was third at 16.5%. It will not be a good year, as major spending cuts are expected in all areas.
5. There is still discussion of a Special Session in January to deal with the shortfall in the current fiscal year that ends on June 30, 2010. However, the cost of a Special Session is estimated to be approximately $100,000 per day, so there are those who are encouraging to wait until the Legislators all come back to Capitol for regular session.
6. Earlier in the year to deal with the shortfall, monthly allocations to State Departments and Agencies were reduced by 5% per month, across the board. As the shortfall numbers have grown worse, the Legislative Leadership and Governor have agreed to increase the reduction to 10% per month. It is expected that that amount of reduction will still not be sufficient to get through to year's end, and so additional cuts are expected.
The Oklahoma Pharmacists Association.