How Will The Healthcare Reform Affect Pharmacy Practice?
(Updated 3/30/10)
There has been a lot of buzz & speculation about how the healthcare reform will impact pharmacy practice. Concrete understanding of its true impact will be made more clear as it moves forward into implementation.
Many pharmacists feel that the healthcare reform is likely to positively impact pharmacy practice because of its support of pharmacy practice and its importance in the healthcare system.
Pharmacy-related aspects of the passed bill include a loan-forgiveness program & grants for pharmacist-provided medication therapy management (MTM) services. The bill scales back cuts to Medicaid pharmacy reimbursement rates under the average manufacturer price, and exempts pharmacies from durable medical equipment accreditation requirements.
Increased access to healthcare as a result of the reform is expected to increase healthcare demand, and some say this is good for pharmacists. However, more prescriptions filled does not mean more money generated for pharmacies. For example, with Medicare, you must fill a higher volume of prescriptions to generate the same amount of profit as you may when a patient is on insurance.
As the healthcare reform moves forward and plays itself out in the upcoming years, it is important for pharmacists to continue to educate our legislators on what pharmacists do. The impression we make to our legislators can result in their support or lack of support about what pharmacists do. Some legislators do not see the level of care that pharmacists can provide to them in the pharmacies they go to. This can happen especially in pharmacies that are understaffed. In those pharmacies, pharmacists may not be able to give each patient the attention they’d like.
How do you think the healthcare reform will affect pharmacy? What are your biggest questions about how it can impact pharmacy? I know some of you are concerned about whether pharmacist salaries will be affected; others wonder how it will affect the pharmaceutical industry or managed care pharmacies. Share your questions below.
How can you contribute to educate the public about our profession & encourage lawmakers to encourage pharmacy practice the way we’d like to practice? Check out APhA’s website on steps to take to make legislators aware of what we do. Share your story and move legislators. Comment below with your opinion on how the healthcare reform will impact pharmacists and their practice.
Update: The Senate has passed the bill with MTM by pharmacists in it.
how is the new health reform going to personally affect pharmacists in their health care insurances will it get better or worse? and how does it differ from families to a single person? can someone give me some answers?
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Update: The healthcare reform bill will be voted on soon by the House! If it is passed, the bill will go to President Obama for his signature. The final healthcare bill includes “numerous pharmacy-related provisions, including a grants program for medication therapy management sought by APhA and other members of the pharmacy coalition. An adjustment for pharmaceutical pricing based on average manufacturer price, or AMP, is also in the bill.” per the American Pharmacists Association.
Tiffany, regarding your question, I believe the health reform if passed will affect pharmacists just as it would affect the general public. Watch for what happens.