Healthcare Vote on Sunday

[Argentium]

It looks like the health care bill has a good chance of passing on Sunday. There are a few mentions of pharmacists (indirectly or directly), and some of the changes that APhA and AMP have been lobbying for are included.

Included in the legislation are numerous pharmacy-related provisions, including a grants program for medication therapy management sought by APhA and other members of the pharmacy coalition. An adjustment for pharmaceutical pricing based on average manufacturer price, or AMP, is also in the bill.

- http://www.pharmacist.com/AM/Template.cfm?Section=Home2&CONTENTID=22809&TEMPLATE=/CM/HTMLDisplay.cfm

Meyer said the Senate- and House-passed bills call for the creation of a grant program to pay for pharmacists to provide MTM services to certain patients.
The bills, he added, provide better definitions of MTM services than does the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement, and Modernization Act of 2003, which created Part D.
Both bills also require the secretary of Health and Human Services to submit to Congress a report assessing the outcomes of pharmacist-provided MTM services.
Such a report, Meyer said, would overcome policymakers’ reluctance to extrapolate the findings of the relatively small-scale studies that have been conducted to date.
Neither piece of legislation requires Medicare Part B to recognize pharmacists as providers. But Meyer said the MTM grant program offers "a potential pathway for providing the needed data to make the case for provider status."

-http://www.ashp.org/import/news/HealthSystemPharmacyNews/newsarticle.aspx?id=3281

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[jinga]

I think that all if passed, this bill will have a positive effect on the profession. I'm hoping it will pass, not just for the sake of the profession, but for the sake of those who have difficulty acquiring insurance. It's not perfect, but it's a step in the right direction.

 

[type b pharmD]

thank god! it's time someone finally took a step in the right direction! (any direction that takes us towards single payer)

If the government plans on making another huge wealth transfer to the drug companies similar to medicare part D, im sure a lot of that money will be going through the hands of pharmacists. Should be good news for the drug market - 30 million more paying customers!

 

[Argentium]

thank god! it's time someone finally took a step in the right direction! (any direction that takes us towards single payer)

If the government plans on making another huge wealth transfer to the drug companies similar to medicare part D, im sure a lot of that money will be going through the hands of pharmacists. Should be good news for the drug market - 30 million more paying customers!

The drug industry has been supporting the bill despite agreeing to give up 80-100B over the next few years. So basically, you can guarantee they're gonna make a windfall

 

[Dezixn]

thank god! it's time someone finally took a step in the right direction! (any direction that takes us towards single payer)

If the government plans on making another huge wealth transfer to the drug companies similar to medicare part D, im sure a lot of that money will be going through the hands of pharmacists. Should be good news for the drug market - 30 million more paying customers!

I'm scared lol. We have enough customers at my pharmacy already!
Joking, but I do think this would be a positive for pharmacists. With that many more ppl having insurance there's going to be a lot more people needing medication (captain obvious, I know).

 

[bacillus1]

I was not aware that we weren't recognized as providers by Part B. That was not something that APhA was lobbying for, for some reason...

But I'm hoping that some of those hill visits students and pharmacists made last weekend will make a difference in the outcome, though we weren't talking about anything other than pharmacists in HCR...