Thanks to the hard work by National
Association of Community Pharmacists staff and the
the association's clout with both sides of the
aisle in Washington, pharmacy is a winner in the
health care reform bill passed by the U.S. House
of Representatives last night.
I think you
will be most pleased with the AMP fix, but there's
many more benefits in this bill for pharmacy in
general, and for independent pharmacy in
particular. Here's a link to
NCPA's summary of the bill's impact
on pharmacy. And it's also on our Web site,
www.TxRxCouncil.org.
Our issues addressed
in the bill are:
- Medicaid Generic Drug Pharmacy Reimbursement
(AMP Fix)
- Pharmacy Benefit Manager (PBM) Transparency
in Health Exchanges
- Pharmacists Exempted from Medicare DME
Accreditation Requirement
- Pharmacist-Delivered Medication Therapy
Management Services
- Closes the Medicare Part D "Donut Hole"
- New Requirements for Long Term Care
Pharmacies
- Small Business Provisions
- 340B Provisions
My hat's off to
Senior Vice President for Government Affairs John
Coster, RPh, PhD and his entire staff. This
victory also is due to NCPA's volunteer leadership
headed by President Joe Harmison, RPh, Executive
Vice President & CEO Bruce Roberts, RPh and
the rest of NCPA's staff.
I've had the
pleasure of serving on the NCPA National
Legislation Government Affairs Committee and It's
been a joy these past years watching NCPA's
government affairs team drill down on issues and
relentlessly represent us in D.C.
They
left the debate of the merits of the bill in
general to others but made sure that if a bill
passed, the pharmacy provisions were included.
This was no small chore!
Stay
tuned!
Richard E. Beck,
RPh
Executive
Director
