NCPA to Call-out PBMs on High Drug Costs
in Upcoming Washington Post Ad
Next week, NCPA will run an ad in the Washington Post for two days to call out PBMs for patients paying higher drug costs. The ad will show that since PBMs retain negotiated discounts from manufacturers and pharmacies, patients are paying inflated costs at the pharmacy counter. The ad questions why Congress and the administration aren’t doing more to address this.
President Biden Announces Six-point COVID-19 Action Plan
This week, President Biden unveiled a “Path out of the Pandemic” plan, a strategy to combat COVID-19. The six points include vaccinating the unvaccinated, furthering protection for the vaccinated, keeping schools safely open, increasing testing and requiring masking, protecting our economic recovery, and improving care for those with COVID-19. The detailed plan is available here and calls for expansion of vaccinations and testing, and also explicitly authorizes pharmacists to administer monoclonal antibody treatments, which NCPA CEO Douglas Hoey sees as a positive for independent pharmacies. Read NCPA’s full statement here. For more info on pharmacists administering monoclonal antibody treatments, click here.
New Partnership will Address Pharmacy Desert Concerns
NCPA and the University of Southern California School of Pharmacy and Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics have formed a partnership to address growing concerns about barriers in pharmacy access, including closures. The Pharmacy Access Initiative will generate real-time information for national, state, and local policy officials, health care academics, industry leaders, and others to identify communities lacking in pharmacy access. Better data on the proliferation of so-called pharmacy deserts could help policymakers and industry leaders and, ultimately, underserved communities. This research is already underway and should begin being released in the coming months. Read NCPA’s news release on the initiative here.
HHS Releases a Report to Address High Drug Prices
This week, HHS released the Comprehensive Plan for Addressing High Drug Prices: A Report in Response to the Executive Order on Competition in the American Economy that was required by a President Biden Executive Order. While the report does mention a significant number of issues NCPA asked be included such as pharmacy deserts, PBM spread pricing, state laws on PBM reimbursement to pharmacies, and a specific mention of pharmacy DIR, which NCPA requested the Secretary include, the report offers little concrete legislative or regulatory initiatives to tackle pharmacy DIR or other independent pharmacy specific issues. HHS continues to focus on drug negotiation in Part B and Part D, out-of-pocket reforms in Part D, and legislative avenues to encourage the development of drugs to drive down costs. Click here to view NCPA’s summary of the report.
Provider Relief Fund General Distribution
Phase 4 Coming Soon
The Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) announced that it is making $25.5 billion in new funding available for health care providers, including pharmacies, affected by the COVID-19 pandemic in a fourth general distribution of the Provider Relief Fund (PRF). The PRF Phase 4 will reimburse smaller providers who tend to operate on thin margins and often serve vulnerable or isolated communities for their lost revenues and COVID-19 expenses at higher rates compared to larger providers, and includes bonus payments for providers who serve Medicaid, CHIP, and/or Medicare patients. PRF Phase 4 also includes $8.5 billion from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) for providers based on the amount of Medicaid, CHIP, and/or Medicare services they provide to patients who live in rural areas as defined by the HHS Federal Office of Rural Health Policy, also based on Medicare reimbursement rates. The PRF application portal will open on September 29, 2021.
Congressional Democrats Move Forward
with Reconciliation Process
The reconciliation process formally kicked off in the House this week with five committees marking up their portions of the $3.5 trillion bill. Of note are the Ways and Means proposals being marked up including universal paid family and medical leave, as well as expanding Medicare coverage to include dental, hearing and vision benefits. However, the legislation unveiled this week was solely a product of the House, not legislation that Senate Democrats or the White House had consulted on. Democrats still have to sort out how to pay for the package, and some moderates are trying to slow down the process. Pressure is mounting on committee chairs to have their portions of the reconciliation package drafted by Sept. 15. The Energy and Commerce Committee plans to mark up their proposals next week, which may include some drug pricing policies.
NCPA Urges California Governor to Sign Anti-steering Bill
NCPA submitted a letter urging California Gov. Newsom (D) to sign SB 524 into law. The bill would protect patient access to community pharmacy services by prohibiting insurers and PBMs from steering patients to insurer/PBM-owned pharmacies.
Join Us in Charlotte, N.C.
for the NCPA 2021 Annual Convention
If you have not yet done so, register for the in-person NCPA 2021 Annual Convention in Charlotte, N.C. from Oct. 9-12. Don’t miss the chance to reconnect with your colleagues for four days of best-in-class business education, networking opportunities, and a little fun in Charlotte. We look forward to seeing you there.
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. The weekly update is intended exclusively for the recipient and is not for external distribution.