In early May, Adam and I flew to Washington, DC to attend
the NASPA National Meeting at the US Pharmacopeia.It was really nice to meet with other state
association presidents, president-elects, and executive directors.We learned that many of the issues we face
here in Utah are also seen in many others.It was great to learn how they are approaching and working to solve
them.One of my favorite parts of the
two day event was the round table meeting and hearing from Tom Menighan and LB
Brown from American Pharmacists Association, Doug Hoey of National Community
Pharmacists Association, Steve Anderson of National Association of Chain Drug
Stores, Lucinda Maine and Patricia Chase of the American Association of
Colleges of Pharmacy, David Miller and Dale Coker from the International
Academy of Compounding Pharmacists.The
resounding theme was “Pharmacist Provider Status”, “Medicare Star Ratings”, and
how pharmacists are going to play an important role in meeting and serving our
patient base.They reported that it will
not be “if but when” CMS recognizes pharmacists as providers where we will
engage our patients and public in potentially providing vital services such as
bone density screening, diabetes screening, smoking cessation programs,
transitions of care, depression screening,MTM, and medication reconciliation.Pharmacists will be a part of collaboration care teams in this vision
and direction.In just the past few
days, APhA has announced that technical changes to Medicare Advantage and
Medicare Part D involving an expansion of MTM services for beneficiaries with
two or more chronic conditions (one being a core chronic disease) with a spend
of $620 annually.In the release, it was
stated that MTM has been shown to “improve drug therapy outcomes” with the
intended result of overall decrease in healthcare costs.
David Miller made a comment that stuck with me.“Pharmacists need to learn to give up the
drugs”.I take this to mean; “how do we
view ourselves”?How do we value our
time”?Going forth, as a profession, we
need to learn to bill for our services.Whether MTM begins to gain overall acceptance at a faster pace is
anyone’s guess at this point, but it is happening, and will continue to happen.This is where pharmacy can make the largest
impact in the overall goal in reduction of healthcare costs.What we need to do now is to view our own
practice settings, and what changes can we make to become even better
providers.Yes….change is here and more are coming to our profession!
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