NCPA Members Identify 2015 Priorities

PRESS RELEASE

ALEXANDRIA, Va. (Jan. 21, 2015) — Community pharmacists are most concerned about below-cost reimbursement for certain generic drugs as well as exclusionary Medicare drug plans according to a survey conducted by the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) that asked its members to help identify the organization’s 2015 priorities.

“As a member organization, NCPA aligns its efforts and resources with the issues that are most important to the community pharmacists that it serves,” said NCPA President John T. Sherrer, RPh, co-owner of Kenmar Pharmacy and Poole's Pharmacy in Marietta, Ga. “These results are consistent with the anecdotal conversations that I and other NCPA officers have regularly with community pharmacy owners. In particular, the topics of ensuring reasonable reimbursement for generic drugs and greater patient choice of pharmacy are vital to sustain continued patient access to community pharmacies and the unparalleled service and medication expertise that they provide. I thank the pharmacists who took the time out of their busy schedules to participate in this survey.”

The first portion of the survey was dedicated to public policy issues. The responses from pharmacists produced the following top five matters, ranked in order of importance:

• State and federal “maximum allowable cost” (MAC) legislation to address the delay in generic prescription product payment rate updates
• Any willing pharmacy having access to Medicare Part D “preferred” networks
• Regulatory advocacy on new definitions of how Medicaid calculates its payments to pharmacies (e.g., NADAC)
• Pharmacist provider status
• Small business tax reform

The poll also asked pharmacists to choose among a number of leading business issues on which NCPA could best assist their business and patient service needs. The pharmacists identified the following five topics as most important: assistance in creating community pharmacy pay-for-performance networks; develop programs to help diversify pharmacy revenue sources; offer programs on quality measures and Star Ratings and their effect on pharmacies; share information about other innovative pharmacy owners to spur more innovation; and ways to maximize front-end merchandising revenue opportunities for pharmacies.

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The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA®) represents the interests of America's community pharmacists, including the owners of nearly 23,000 independent community pharmacies. Together they represent an $88.8 billion health care marketplace, dispense nearly 40% of all retail prescriptions, and employ more than 300,000 individuals, including over 62,000 pharmacists. To learn more go to www.ncpanet.org or read NCPA’s blog, The Dose, at http://ncpanet.wordpress.com/.