NACDS to Congress: Want to sustain rural healthcare? Here’s how.

ARLINGTON, Va. – The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) is urging the U.S. Congress to support rural healthcare through the enactment of pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) reform; the enactment of legislation to ensure seniors in Medicare have access to state-approved pharmacist services; and prioritizing the role of pharmacies in innovative healthcare models, including value-based care.

Steven Anderson

NACDS president and CEO Steven Anderson relayed these recommendations in a statement for the record of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee’s hearing today on “Rural Healthcare: Supporting Lives and Improving Communities.”

Anderson wrote, “Rural Americans are more likely to die from heart disease, stroke, cancer, chronic respiratory disease, and unintentional injury. Causes of this tremendous disparity include lower access to healthcare social determinants of health such as poverty. To achieve superior results, the nation desperately needs new solutions and should look toward community pharmacies.”

In putting forward recommendations, Anderson stated:

• On PBM reform: “Without PBM reform, we can expect there to be continued increases in patients’ medication costs, limits on patients’ choice of pharmacies, restrictions on access to medicines that are right for patients, and jeopardy of the sustainability of the pharmacies and pharmacy teams on whom patients rely… NACDS applauds Chairman Wyden and Ranking Member Crapo for prioritizing this bipartisan issue of PBM reform this Congress and for your continued commitment to fight for better healthcare and lower costs for Americans.”
• On the Equitable Community Access to Pharmacist Services Act (S. 2477/H.R. 1770): “Despite their proven ability to improve health outcomes and save downstream healthcare dollars, today pharmacists are among the only healthcare professionals omitted from the Medicare statute as Part B providers. Consequently, pharmacists’ accessibility and clinical expertise have been largely untapped in promoting better care quality, value, and access, including in rural and underserved communities.”
• On innovative healthcare models: “Healthcare payment model reform to reward value-based care, better quality, and improved clinical outcomes can help align incentives toward what really matters – better health, while lowering unnecessary and preventable costs for our healthcare system. However, despite a multitude of research examples and published literature on the value of pharmacies and pharmacists to improve health outcomes through clinical services and save downstream healthcare dollars, pharmacists and pharmacies have yet to be directly engaged as care providers in the existing CMS Innovation Center’s value-based care models—and further opportunities exist to engage pharmacies in value-based care across commercial payers, as well.”

More information about NACDS’ policy priorities can be found at AccessAgenda.NACDS.org.