NCPA Advocacy Efforts

Think the NCPA’s Advocacy Efforts Don’t Affect You? Think Again…

Getting results from Congress, federal agencies, state legislatures, and the courts takes strategy and patience. Throughout that process, it’s critical for you to be informed and engaged. These select examples help illustrate the benefits of National Community Pharmacist Association (NCPA) advocacy efforts; in the past year alone, NCPA has:

  • Coordinated 153 industry stakeholders to sign a letter to the Trump Administration advocating for eliminating pharmacy direct and indirect remuneration (DIR) fees.
  • Influenced inclusion of proposed pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) transparency reforms in the Trump administration plan for lowering prescription drug prices.
  • Secured changes to the Energy and Commerce Committee mark-up of opioid legislation now pending before the House. This includes ensuring that patient choice of pharmacy is respected and exempting long-term care from electronic prescribing for controlled substances.
  • Saw the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS’s) final 2019 Part D rule reflect NCPA’s input, including CMS asserting its authority to require all pharmacy DIR fees to be accounted for at point of sale.
  • In a four-month period, testified three times before House Energy and Commerce subcommittees on issues such as the drug supply chain, the opioid epidemic, and the FDA implementation of the Drug Quality and Security Act.
  • Supported pharmacy organizations in 38 states on 2018 state legislation, providing bill review, model provisions, letters of support (or opposition), and grassroots calls to action about issues, including Medicaid reimbursements, PBM reform, and pharmacy patient protections, among others.
  • Advocated successfully for appointment of Rep. Buddy Carter (R-GA), a pharmacist, to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, where most pharmacy-related legislation is considered.
  • Influenced CMS’ release of a groundbreaking analysis of impact of Part D DIR fees on patients.
  • Met multiple times with CMS Administrator Seema Verma, Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) officials, and White House Office officials to advise on the impact of pharmacy DIR fees on patients and community pharmacies.
  • Filed lawsuit against State of Washington over its arbitrarily low and improperly promulgated dispensing fee for pharmacies in the state Medicaid program
  • Influenced the inclusion of MAC provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act passed in November 2017.