ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Community Pharmacists Association has sponsored an advertisement that calls on Congress to support pro-patient, pro-pharmacist policies.
NCPA said Wednesday that it’s running a full-page ad this week in the congressional newspaper The Hill to spotlight contributions that community pharmacies make to patient care, as well as to their local economies.
Titled "Independent Community Pharmacies: Improving Health Outcomes and Lowering Costs," the ad notes that pharmacists provide frontline health care services, such as expert medication counseling, immunizations and diabetes education.
The ad, too, cites a December 2012 Gallup poll revealing that people have a high level of trust in pharmacists. Of the more than 1,000 U.S. adults surveyed by Gallup, 75% rated pharmacists "very high" or "high" in terms of honesty and ethics — behind only nurses (85%).
With the new Obama administration and the 113th Congress beginning their 2013 agendas, the NCPA ad urges lawmakers to take action on several key issues for community pharmacy. Those include enacting measures to reform and regulate pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs); address a shortage of primary care doctors through the use of pharmacists for certain health care services; safeguard patient access to customized medications prepared by traditional compounding pharmacies when prescribed by a doctor; and preserve patient choice of pharmacy in all government health plans.
A U.S. map atop the ad also illustrates the value of community pharmacies to the economy. Pictured within each state on the map is the number of jobs supported by community pharmacies, led by New York (31,940 jobs), California (30,816), Texas (22,697), Florida (18,876) and Pennsylvania (14,593).
