ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The National Community Pharmacists Association will receive financial support for its nascent Long-Term Care Division from Managed Health Care Associates (MHA) Inc., a health care services company.
NCPA said Monday that its Long-Term Care (LTC) Division, announced in early October, was formed to promote policies that benefit long-term care residents and the independent pharmacists who care for them. The division represents all community pharmacies that provide LTC services, including "closed door" pharmacies that exclusively serve LTC facilities and their residents, according to the association.
"MHA has been a consistent advocate for independent LTC closed-door pharmacies and has now agreed to provide significant financial support for NCPA’s LTC Division," NCPA stated.
MHA is the nation’s largest group purchasing organization focused on alternate site/nonacute settings and has grown to be the largest purchasing group in the country serving LTC and home infusion pharmacies, according to NCPA.
"NCPA has achieved notable success in its advocacy efforts on behalf of community pharmacies," Douglas Present, chief executive officer of Florham Park, N.J.-based MHA, said in a statement. "We are very pleased with NCPA’s stated goal of replicating those successes for independent LTC pharmacies. We are supporting NCPA’s new LTC Division because of the value and potential it offers for our membership and for all LTC pharmacies."
Robert Greenwood, president of NCPA, noted that LTC pharmacy providers face regulatory and legislative hurdles that threaten their ability to stay in business and care for their patients, which led the association to create the LTC Division as a way to give these pharmacies and their patients "a greater voice" in key policy debates.
"We’re proud of the significant progress that has already been made just six months later. For example, NCPA played a leading role with other LTC stakeholders in working with Medicare officials to arrive at a much more reasonable approach to implementing the so-called ‘short-cycle’ dispensing policy," Greenwood explained.
"We greatly appreciate MHA’s vote of confidence in this new effort," he added. "Working together, I know our organizations will help achieve many more victories for long-term care patients and pharmacies in the months and years ahead."
