Last week, Congress passed a short-term stopgap bill that would keep the government funded for an additional two weeks, moving the deadlines from March 1 and March 8 to March 8 and March 22. This means that six of the appropriations bills are nearly finished with negotiations and will come for a vote on March 8. The rest of the bills to be funded by March 22 focus on the Department of Defense, the Department of Homeland Security, and the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education. This additional time is necessary as Congress has reached stalemates in many ongoing negotiations over the last few weeks including the issues we’re tracking about PBM reform. We need to continue to remind Congress that the time is now, and independent pharmacies are on the line.
Pharmacists are heeding NCPA’s calls to action and pressing Congress to act now! You may recall that in January, pharmacists sent the most grassroots messages in a two-week period that we have ever seen. Well, the number of messages sent to Hill offices these past two weeks set a new engagement record and is almost double what was sent last month! Pharmacists from 49 states have participated in our campaign and they have been joined by thousands of patient advocates. A big kudos and thank you to everyone who has joined this fight and taken time to communicate the urgent need to your patients as well.
We still need you to call and email your legislators TODAY and tell them inaction is unacceptable. Remember the reforms we are advocating are pro-pharmacy, pro-patient and pro-taxpayer — a win-win-win solution. Congress cannot delay acting! Several NCPA priorities have advanced through the committee process in at least one chamber, and one has even passed the full House of Representatives. Congress must not miss this opportunity to pass meaningful PBM reform provisions that can be signed into law. You can also engage your patients in the fight by displaying this flyer and QR code in your pharmacy so they can send their own messages to Congress to demand PBM reforms now, or you can share this link with them.
