Dear Colleague,
The United States Code and the U.S. Federal Register are littered with rules that were passed with good intentions, but that either didn't make sense or flat-out failed. There's one known as the Runny Ketchup Speed Limit, which regulates the pace at which ketchup must pour from the bottle. (They wanted to prevent sellers from watering it down.) There's another law making it a crime to sell onion rings made with minced or diced onions. How about this one: a law that regulates not only how raisin growers are to grow their crops but also what portion they could sell. Personally, I would make all raisins illegal, but this outdated law is still on the books. The Supreme Court has ruled against some of its provisions. One justice called it the "the world's most outdated law."
All of these defy common sense. No one pays attention to them. No one enforces them. And they didn't make anyone healthier or safer. But they were a priority for Congress at one time, and they're still on the books. On the other hand, there's an action Congress hasn't taken that makes a lot more sense and would improve the country's health care infrastructure.
This week, the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on the ECAPS bill, one of our Holy Grail issues. It would allow pharmacies to be paid under Medicare Part B for test-and-treat services related to COVID-19, influenza, RSV, and strep in states that already allow it. Tennessee Pharmacists Association CEO and NCPA member Anthony Pudlo testified about the importance of pharmacists being paid by Medicare for their services. But it's more than that. Paying pharmacists to provide critical health care services greatly expands access for patients across the country.
If the ECAPS bill passes — and that is a big "IF" — it will likely be at the end of the year. In the meantime, we are pleased to have partnered with Bristol Myers Squibb on a study that provides even more clear evidence that independent pharmacists can and should be doing more.
Under the program, 25 pharmacies in rural areas screened patients for conditions that can lead to strokes, heart attacks, and life-threatening illnesses. According to the data, the pharmacies in the program identified nearly 10,000 at-risk patients and made more than 20,000 interventions in just six months! In Minnie, Ky. (population 498), Parkview Pharmacy did 698 stroke screenings and 161 atrial fibrillation screenings. Patients were screened for stroke risk, atrial fibrillation, transition of care assistance, and health-related social needs, like lack of food, housing, or transportation.
Among patients screened for A-fib, pharmacy staff detected 400 whose heart rhythm was abnormal. Eighty-one percent of them were referred to a physician. Just these 25 pharmacies during this short pilot saved $14.1 million in avoidable costs and, even more importantly, who knows how many lives or potentially debilitating cardiovascular events.
And here's the key part: PHARMACISTS WERE PAID for these interventions. The implications are obvious. Early interventions by pharmacists save lives. And the potential savings for taxpayers and insurance plans are enormous. The results were so impressive that we and BMS are planning a second stage. Stay tuned for details on that.
Paying pharmacists to do what we are uniquely trained to do strengthens the nation's health care infrastructure and is critical to Making America Healthy Again. Legislation recognizing pharmacists as providers in Medicare can't come soon enough. But pharmacy owners aren't waiting around for Congress to act. They're already proving a simple truth: when pharmacists are empowered and properly incented, patients and taxpayers win.
Best,
Douglas Hoey, Pharmacist, MBA
NCPA CEO
P.S. Today is the last day you can get the discounted hotel rate for the NCPA Annual Convention, coming up fast on Oct. 3-6 in Kansas City. It's the "how-to" convention for independent pharmacy, and we hope to see you there.
