By Dirk White, RPh, Executive Vice President, Legislative Affairs and Board Member of WSPC
Everyone sighs a heavy sigh of relief when the presidential election is over. We are now free from the seemingly endless abusive assaults on our visual and auditory nerves. Our email and snail mail boxes are now void of all those ads and postcards, and we can finally leave our phone plugged in during dinner. Now we can relax and stop thinking about politics for a couple of years until the next election.
If you’re still reading, you must know where I’m going. We cannot relax or stop thinking politically — now is when we must step up our game. We must all be thinking about politics, where we want to go, and what we need to see changed. The first thing that comes to mind for me this time of year is all the non-funded federally mandated “trainings” we must sit through to stay in compliance with Medicare and Part D plans or else not be paid for our services to those beneficiaries.
It appears that President Trump is trying to remove some regulations, but we must write to him and remind his administration that small businesses employ more people than all the Fortune 500 companies. Those regulations have a much larger impact on us and our bottom line, as well as our ability to grow our business and employ more people. We know he will do well for those large companies but we must remind him who we are, what we do, and how many people we employ — and that we won’t be moving our offices or any of our services to another country.
There has been some really great legislation passed in our Western States in the last couple of years. Oregon has prescriptive authority for BCPs, numerous states can now dispense Naloxone without a prescription, and many of our states can now administer immunizations to various ages and types without a prescription. All of this new legislation is a fabulous expansion for the practice of pharmacy, which allows us to practice at the top of our profession.
So the fly in the ointment is that we do not have provider status. This prevents us from being paid for any of these new services that we can now provide for our patients. All of these advancements are for naught without being able to bill for and get paid for our service. Allowing pharmacists to practice at the top of our profession increases access to care and will reduce health care costs. Until we can be recognized as providers, our patient communities will not see these benefits, nor benefit from all this groundbreaking state legislation. The Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Areas Enhancement Act of 2017, H.R. 592 and S.109, addresses the provider status issue. It is imperative that this federal legislation pass this year.
We all must email and call our delegates in Congress to tell them how important this legislation is to the health and well-being of our communities. This legislation will enable our patients to access a greater menu of health care services nationwide, opening the door for pharmacists to play a greater role in the delivery of health care services, and allowing us to partner with hospitals and health care systems to provide better health and wellness for our patients. Please call your senators and representatives and ask that they sign these bills as cosponsors, and let’s get this legislation passed and expand our professional horizons.
Legislators may be contacted by phone, fax, and email. To learn who your state legislators are, go to www.thomas.gov, www.senate.gov, and www.house.gov. You can also offer to be a volunteer health care expert and resource for their office.
Now that we are all NCPA members through WSPC, let’s all plan on flooding Capitol Hill with other pharmacists April 26-27, 2017, for the NCPA 2017 Congressional Pharmacy Fly-In! Take the opportunity to speak up as Congress writes the biggest health care laws in seven years. We are fighting for: No retroactive pharmacy DIR fees, pro-pharmacy, Medicaid & Affordable Care act laws, Pharmacist Provider Status, and more. For more information, log onto http://www.ncpanet.org/flyin or call 1-800-544-7447.
