NCPA IN ACTION Nearly 20 gagement either helped legislators Members of Congress participating in In-District understand the role independent a pharmacy visit or in-district meeting: pharmacists play in the health care • Rep. Robert Aderholt (R-Ala.) Pharmacy Visits system, the challenges they face, • Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) Since January and the need for legislative action, or • Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.) provided pharmacy champions with • Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.) additional information and examples • Rep. John Carter (R-Tenn.) to fight for legislative remedies. • Rep. Doug Collins (R-Ga.) Since January, nearly 20 members • Rep. Barbara Comstock (R-Va.) of Congress or their staff have either There are several upcoming op- • Rep. John Duncan (R-Tenn.) staff visited an independent pharmacy or portunities to engage members • Rep. Drew Ferguson (R-Ga.) met with pharmacists in the district, of Congress while they are in the • Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) with several additional visits pending. district. Congress will be on recess • Rep. Bob Gibbs (R-Ohio) staff Some of these meetings were with for Independence Day from July 1-10, • Rep. Richard Hudson (R-N.C.) members of key committees with ju- and for its annual August recess from • Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) risdiction over independent pharma- July 29-Sept. 4. If you are interested in • Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.) cy’s legislative priorities. Others were engaging with a member during one • Rep. Tom Marino (R-Pa.) with members, including several with of these periods, visit the NCPA Advo- • Rep. Tim Murphy (R-Pa.) new members of Congress, seeking cacy Center. You can also contact Mi- • Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.) to learn more about the issues. But chael Rule at 703-838-2617 or michael. • Rep. Jose Serrano (D-N.Y.) staff in every case, this in-district en- [email protected] for assistance. • Rep. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.). CLARITY FOR PHARMACY COMPOUNDERS, AT LAST A recently-enacted $1 trillion omnibus spending bill that will keep the federal government running through September includes language that clarifies congressional intent on several compound- ing regulations implemented under the Drug Quality and Security Act. This is a win for NCPA and all compounding stakeholders who have worked to protect the practice of pharmacy compound- ing. The language calls on FDA to: • Draft a new memorandum of understanding that allows pharmacies that meet all other requirements of 503A to "distribute" compounded products over state lines. Dispensed com- pounds are not to be included. • Draft new guidance to allow pharmacists to compound for "office use" in anticipation of receiving patient-specific prescriptions. NCPA & All Compounding • Acknowledge that pharmacies compounding under 503A are under the purview of state s Stakeholder boards of pharmacy and are not to be held to current Good Manufacturing Practices. • Any final guidance on animal drug compounding must not attempt to apply Section 503A or 503B to animal drug health. NCPA is continuing to monitor FDA activity to ensure that it is finally following the intent of Congress. 8 America’s PHARMACIST | July 2017 President Mullins’ ‘Thank You’ Tour NCPA President DeAnn Mullins, Pharmacist, CDE, personally thanked seven lawmakers for championing independent community pharmacy legislation in a series of Capitol Hill meetings in late May. Mullins, owner of Mullins Pharmacy in Lynn Haven, Fla., met with Reps. Jaime Herrera Beutler (R-Wash.), Doug Collins (R-Ga.), Neal Dunn (R-Fla.), Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), Dave Loebsack (D-Iowa), and Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.) along with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.). Mullins also met with key committee and legislative staffers. Learn more about your congressional priorities in the Feder- al Advocacy section of the NCPA website. While visiting Washington, D.C., DeAnn Mullins met with Rep. Morgan Griffith (R-Va.), and Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.). Stateside Georgia: Patient Protections Added, New Hampshire Legislature Passes Bill Restricting Clawbacks Defanged PBM Accreditation Powers Gov. Nathan Deal (R) has signed legislation that In New Hampshire, a bill prohibiting PBM powers prohibits copay clawbacks, mandatory mail order, and passed the state House and Senate, and is expected pharmacist gag clauses plus adds other pro-patient to be signed into law by Gov. Chris Sununu (R). provisions. HB 455 prohibits pharmacy benefit managers from requiring providers to attain accreditation, Nevada Takes on PBMs, Pharma in Drug Pricing credentialing, or licensing other than by the pharmacy Transparency Law board or other state or federal entity. In Nevada, a bipartisan bill (SB 539) was passed that will force drug manufacturers to justify price hikes TO LEARN MORE AND GET on diabetes medications, and also require PBMs to INVOLVED, VISIT THE NCPA disclose rebate information. The legislation would ADVOCACY CENTER also prohibit PBMs from punishing pharmacists for "selling a less expensive alternative drug" to patients. The bill passed both the state's Assembly and Senate and was signed into law by Gov. Brian Sandoval (R). Oregon: Stricter PBM Regulation Gov. Kate Brown (D) has signed legislation that tightens a previous law regulating PBMs, giving enforcement authority to the Department of Consumer and Business Services to deny, revoke, or suspend registration of a PBM under certain conditions. www.ncpanet.org/ap 9 For Your Viewing Pleasure: Don’t Miss 'The PBM Story' Video NCPA has released a short video (three minutes) based on the print version of The PBM Story: What They Say, What They Do, and What Can Be Done About It. Download a copy from www.ncpanet.org/pbmstory or watch it on NCPA's YouTube channel. Play it in your waiting area if you're set up for that. Please also share the link promptly with your members of Congress, your state legislators, other policymakers, local employers, and anyone else who needs to understand that there are better solutions that exist to address rising prescription drugs while still ensuring quality patient care. Support Building for TRICARE Pilot Program to Access Lower-Cost Prescriptions Sixty-five members of the House of Representatives have asked the Secretary of Defense to implement the TRICARE Acquisition Cost Parity Pilot Program for Retail Pharmacy, which would allow retail pharmacies PROVIDER STATUS UPDATE to purchase brand name drugs at reduced rates via voluntary manufac- turer discounts. NCPA strongly supports the program. NCPA and other members of the Patient Access to Pharmacists' Care Coalition met face-to- face with Seema Verma, new administrator of the Centers for Required Reading… Medicare & Medicaid Services, to advocate for pharmacist “Susan Hayes can’t forget the trek from the parking lot, across a dusty patch of provider status. Verma indicated Arizona desert, to a dingy building without air conditioning and through a door that she recognizes the impor- marked ‘Scorpion Room.’ ‘“Like something out of the Bates Motel,”’ said Hayes, a tance of access points to care fraud investigator for employers, unions and health plans, and a longtime [PBM] and supports the concept of industry critic. In the Scorpion Room, she pored over hundreds of pages of non- Medicare Part B pharmacist pro- public contracts between drug companies and a now-defunct pharmacy-benefit vider status. Bipartisan provider manager, a powerful middleman that processes claims and negotiates discounts status legislation, the Pharmacy and rebates.” and Medically Underserved Areas Inside the ‘Scorpion Room’ Where Drug Price Secrets Are Guarded, Enhancement Acts, has been Forbes, May 4, 2017 introduced in the House and Senate. S. 109 has 40 cospon- "If Congress finishes with the Obamacare repeal fight anytime soon and moves sors and H.R. 592 has 176. on to other health topics—cough, drug pricing—it may not be a good time to be a pharmacy benefit manager, the companies that administer health plans' prescrip- You can read about pharmacists tion drug benefits. Anti-PBM sentiment is heating up. The companies say they taking action without waiting for keep drug prices down, but all sides of the health care field are questioning how provider status in the May issue much savings they are bringing to the health sector. of America’s Pharmacist. More A Hard Week for PBMs, Prescription Pulse, May 1, 2017 information about the legislation can be found at www.ncpanet. org/advocacy. TO LEARN MORE AND GET INVOLVED, VISIT THE NCPA ADVOCACY CENTER 10 America’s PHARMACIST | July 2017 “Nothing worth having comes easy,” Theodore Roos- evelt reportedly said. That sums up how NCPA mem- bers reached the front page of a national newspaper talking PBMs..