COVID Vaccine to be Available to Community Pharmacies

This week, after months of talks and correspondence aimed at making sure community pharmacies have access to COVID-19 vaccines, HHS and the CDC informed NCPA that they are making the vaccines available to community pharmacies through independent pharmacy network administrators and state health departments.

In response to its advocacy efforts, NCPA also received letters from the Department of Defense and CDC acknowledging the important role community pharmacy can play in the vaccine effort and thanking NCPA members for their willingness to participate. Read NCPA’s full statement here.

President-elect Biden Focuses on Transition
and Announces COVID Taskforce

One of President-Elect Biden’s first actions was to name his COVID-19 task force. Dealing with the pandemic is a top priority for the incoming administration. Biden has said the task force will quickly consult with state and local health officials on how to best prevent coronavirus spread, reopen schools and businesses, and address the racial disparities that have left communities of color harder hit than others by the pandemic.

Biden has also started his official transition process by naming his agency review teams. Agency review teams are responsible for understanding the operations of each agency, ensuring a smooth transfer of power, and preparing for President-elect Biden and Vice President-elect Harris and their cabinet to hit the ground running on Day One.

Senate Selects Leaders for Next Congress

This week, the Republicans and Democrats in the Senate selected their leadersfor the next Congress. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) were both reelected as their respective party leaders and their leadership teams remained largely unchanged. However, Sen. Rick Scott (R-Fla.) was selected to chair the National Republican Senatorial Committee replacing Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) while the Democrats have not yet selected their campaign chairman. Overall control of the Senate remains undecided. Republicans will have at least 50 seats next Congress, but runoff elections for both Georgia Senates seats on January 5 will determine which party will be in control. If Democrats win both seats, the Senate will split 50-50 with Vice President Kamala Harris casting the tie breaking vote for Democrats.

Successful Virtual Telethon Raises Funds for NCPA PAC

Thank you to our volunteers who participated in the first ever Virtual PAC telethon to raise funds for the NCPA PAC. NCPA President Brian Caswell, NCPA Board Member Lea Wolsoncroft, and PAC Chairman and NCPA Past President Steve Giroux were joined by NCPA members Danny and Karen Cottrell, Steve Hoffart, Matthew Lester, Nasir Mahmood; Alex Moore, and J.J. Peek in calling on behalf of NCPA PAC. Contributions are still being tabulated but as of this writing their efforts have raised over $37,000 for the NCPA PAC! With a new Congress, it is important that community pharmacy continue to be heard in the halls of Congress and the NCPA PAC is a vital tool in that effort. If you have not done so, you can contribute now by clicking here or texting PAC to 703-688-8086. Please note: NCPA PAC can only accept contributions from current NCPA members and from their personal funds. For more information, please contact Eric Lundberg.

NCPA Submits Comments on PQA Endorsement
and Retirement of Measures

This week NCPA submitted comments to PQA on the endorsement of Use of Medications to Prevent Major Cardiovascular Events in Persons with Diabetes (CVDM) and Persistence to Basal Insulin (PST-INS) and the retirement of Antipsychotic Use in Children Under 5 Years Old (APC) and Medication Therapy for Persons with Asthma (MTPA). NCPA supported both the endorsement of the CVDM and PST-INS as improvements on existing metrics and the retirement of APC and MTPA as they are no longer applicable.

PQA Releases Pharmacy Level Performance Plan

The Pharmacy Quality Alliance has released its Pharmacy Measure Development Action Plan, a standard set of measures appropriate for assessing pharmacy performance and use in accountability programs. NCPA offered input in creating the plan from the beginning and will remain actively engaged to ensure measures that are relevant to individual pharmacies and patient medication therapy needs.

NCPA State Legislative Activity Update

NCPA tracks state legislation related to our top three state priorities: Medicaid reform, scope of practice and compensation for services, and PBM reform and regulation. Click each issue for a report of bills that have been introduced so far this session specifically dealing with these three issue areas. You can access the individual bill language and basic information on the bill by clicking on the bill numbers in the attached report. Bills that have moved this week are listed at the top in the “Recently Updated” section.

NCPA’s Advocacy Center Update provides a weekly detailed summary of recent and breaking legislative, regulatory, and state developments impacting independent community pharmacy and NCPA’s efforts to affect policies benefitting its membership and the industry. The weekly update is distributed to NCPA leadership, steering committees, allied organizations/stakeholders and major contributors to the NCPA LDF and PAC