• Senate Finance Committee holds hearing on rising health care costs
• House Ways and Means holds hearing on chronic care — ECAPS bill discussed
• Act now on WAC reductions
• Prepare for IRA manufacturer refund payments with Beacon MFP
• CMS phasing out paper CLIA certificates
• New job board and drug information platform
• NCPA State Legislative Activity Update

Senate Finance Committee holds hearing on rising health care costs

On Wednesday morning, the Senate Finance Committee held a hearing titled, "The Rising Cost of Health Care: Considering Meaningful Solutions for all Americans." The hearing panel included expert witnesses and the perspective of a patient who shops on the Affordable Care Act marketplace. NCPA also submitted a statement for the record highlighting the need for PBM reform and how it will help lower patient costs, as well as our support for legislation that the Finance Committee previously introduced, which was included in the end-of-year package last year and could help stymie rising health care costs by saving taxpayers $5 billion. 

At the hearing, Chairman Mike Crapo (R-Idaho) said he and Ranking Member Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) plan to reintroduce that same legislation that nearly passed last December. This legislation will be introduced in the near future, likely after the Thanksgiving break, and would include NCPA priority legislation addressing Medicaid managed care reform and requiring reasonable and relevant contracts in Medicare Part D.

Also, both Sens. Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) commented on the need for PBM reform; Grassley also mentioned his bill directing the Federal Trade Commission to investigate PBMs.

You can watch the hearing here.

House Ways and Means holds hearing on chronic care — ECAPS bill discussed

On Nov. 19, the House Committee on Ways and Means held a hearing entitled, "Modernizing Care Coordination to Prevent and Treat Chronic Disease." Witnesses included Ashish Parikh, chief population health officer for Summit Health; Michael Hoben, chief medical officer of population health services for Novant Health; Brian Connell, vice president of federal affairs at Blood Cancer United; and Allison Reichert, pharmacist at Bode Drug.

Testimony and questioning covered a wide range of chronic disease care policy issues; Reichert mentioned H.R. 3164, the Ensuring Community Access to Pharmacist Services Act, in multiple replies.

Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) noted the critical role of pharmacists in rural communities: "For these chronic disease patients in rural West Virginia, pharmacists are not just someone who fills their prescriptions. They are often the most accessible and trusted health care professionals for patients managing chronic conditions ... independent pharmacies, for this reason, have long served as a front-line access point for patient care in rural communities.

"I remember when my children were little, I often would talk to the pharmacist before I'd ever bother to call the pediatrician. Unfortunately, as we know, many of the pharmacies are closing at an alarming rate," Miller said. She also asked Reichert how federal recognition of pharmacist services could stabilize community pharmacies and preserve access to care.

Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah) noted that Mehmet Oz, administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, has spoken to the committee about "the importance of allowing pharmacists to practice at the top of their license or take a more expanded and active role in patient care, which they are educated and equipped to do," asking Reichert what opportunities exist for pharmacists to take a more active role in care, testing, and treatment.

In response to Miller and Moore, Reichert highlighted that pharmacists are an "underutilized health care resource," and noted that a greater role for pharmacists in testing and treatment would result in reduced hospitalizations and emergency room visits and increased access for patients, especially rural residents. She noted to Miller that "ECAPS legislation helps Medicare to spend smarter. It shifts care from the ER to accessible, community-based settings where we have access to care for our patients who may otherwise go without." 

Reichert told Moore that legislation like ECAPS "helps to empower Medicare beneficiaries by providing coverage for test-to-treat, testing, and treatment by pharmacists. ECAPS helps to preserve access for the patients who need it the most."

At the end of the hearing in response to a question from subcommittee Chair Vern Buchanan (R-Fla.), Reichert said, "Preventive medicine saves lives and it reduces cost ... ECAPS is earlier testing and treatment of disease. By really implementing pharmacists into those care teams, we can help to produce better outcomes."

You can watch the hearing here.

Act now on WAC reductions

Wholesale Acquisition Costs (WACs) for a number of popular drugs are coming down. Act immediately: review your inventory, cross-check products with WAC decreases, and streamline your inventory. Check for notices from your wholesalers and get started now — If you don’t, you could lose tens of thousands of dollars in excess costs by getting stuck with the higher-priced drug versus the same drug with a lower WAC! Wholesalers are implementing return blocks, with more to come, so if you haven't already returned those products, you're likely stuck with those higher WAC products. 

Take these steps to avoid tens of thousands of dollars in added costs:

Review your inventory;

Cross-check the products with WAC decreases;

Check your will call for prescriptions for WAC affected medications that may be returned to stock;

Pay close attention to WAC reduction announcements from your wholesaler;

Make sure that you fully understand any return blocks implemented by wholesalers;

Streamline your inventory immediately;

Take full advantage of on-demand ordering; and

Enroll in CMS' Medicare Transaction Facilitator program immediately to make sure that you are getting manufacturer refund payments for the first 10 Medicare negotiated drugs under the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program.

Click here for more information, including a list of drugs with WAC decreases that are known to NCPA.

Prepare for IRA manufacturer refund payments with Beacon MFP

Join us on Dec. 4 at 2 p.m. ET for a webinar tour of the Beacon MFP dashboard, a tool pharmacies can use to see the status of maximum fair price refunds (MFP).

Starting Jan. 1, part of your reimbursement for the 10 drugs in the Medicare Drug Price Negotiation Program for 2026 will come through manufacturer refund payments. Learn how the Beacon MFP platform helps pharmacies track refund status, view claim-level data, and file good-faith inquiries.

Register here to see the live demo and prepare your pharmacy for these new pharmacy workflows.

CMS phasing out paper CLIA certificates

CMS recently announced that all laboratories, including pharmacy-based laboratories with a CLIA certificate of waiver, must switch to email notifications by March 1, 2026. After that deadline, CMS will no longer mail paper fee coupons or issue paper certificates.

For more information about the three options for making the switch to electronic notifications, see this document.

New job board and drug information platform

In the past few months we've introduced two new NCPA membership benefits. Among many, many other perks, membership will net you a 20 percent discount on Pyrls Pro, giving you important drug reference information in the palm of your hand, as well as access to an exclusive job board for hirers and job-seekers.

Pyrls is a reference tool providing quick access to useful information like drug summaries and pharmacotherapy charts. A Pyrls Pro subscription supercharges that experience, granting users more advanced drug summaries, a drug interactions checker, pharmacotherapy reviews, and other features. NCPA members can see how to purchase their discounted Pyrls Pro subscription here. 

NCPA members also get access to the NCPA HealthShifts job board, saving them time and energy they'd otherwise spend on creating job listings and guaranteeing they'll get seen by qualified community pharmacy professionals.

You can learn more about NCPA's membership benefits here.

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. 

Due to the holiday, there will not be an Advocacy Center Update on November 28. It will resume on December 5.

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.