It is an exciting time here at 2215 Constitution on this cold but bright Thursday morning. Later today, we hope pharmacists in America will be plugged into providing patients team-based care in greater numbers than we’ve been able to achieve without recognition as providers at the federal level. You can help in getting pharmacists recognized as providers in accountable care organizations (ACOs) – but you have to act fast!

At 10 a.m. this morning Eastern time, the Senate Finance Committee is scheduled to mark up its sustainable growth rate formula (SGR) legislation—the “doc fix” bill. This is the last step before the committee votes on the legislation and sends it to the floor of the full Senate. More than 100 amendments, a number of which affect pharmacy, have been proposed to the Chairman’s Mark, including an amendment by Senators Grassley (R–IA) and Carper (D–DE) titled “Inclusion of Pharmacists as Providers in Medicare ACOs.”

Check the Senate website and see if either of your Senators is one of the 24 members on the Finance Committee. Many of the most populous states are represented—New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Texas, Washington—along with Maryland, Delaware, West Virginia, South Dakota, Iowa, Kansas, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Oregon, Idaho, and Montana (home of Finance Chairman Max Baucus). If so, contact him or her this morning to express your support of the Grassley–Carper amendment being voted in committee today.

We are so grateful to the Senate Finance Committee and its staff, and in particular these senators, for their concerns with medication use and for their ability to see the benefits of having pharmacists on the ACO health care team! Thanks to our APhA Government Affairs team members for their work as resources to the Senate Finance staff as this language was developed. 

Just to “calibrate” folks, this legislative step forward for the pharmacy profession comes in large part because the Senators wanted to help their constituents’ medication use with access to pharmacists’ services. Importantly, this applies to services provided on a team within an ACO. In addition to work needed to get this amendment through the Senate, and through the House and/or conference committee, we’ll continue working on the larger proposal to get pharmacists more broadly recognized as providers in Medicare.

We appreciate all of pharmacy for everything you do to advance our profession! Thank you in advance for sharing with members of the committee the importance of the Grassley–Carper amendment.