As I hinted to you earlier this week, there was a lot of big news on the provider status front in the past few days. While many exciting activities are going on, I am proud to be writing about the introduction of provider status bills in the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate!  We now have bills in both chambers of Congress. These bills, H.R. 592 and S. 314, the Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Areas Enhancement Act, will increase patient access to health care through pharmacists’ patient care services.

The bipartisan support for the legislation in both congressional chambers is a strong indication of the building momentum for provider status on Capitol Hill. The lead sponsors of H.R. 592 are Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-KY), G.K. Butterfield (D-NC), Todd Young (R-IN), and Ron Kind (D-WI). The lead Senate sponsors of S. 314 are Sens. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Robert Casey (D-PA), and Mark Kirk (R-IL).

Last year, with a united front in pharmacy and outstanding grassroots work by our members, we received phenomenal support of similar House legislation—H.R. 4190. Through your efforts and the collaboration of so many pharmacy organizations, we received 123 bipartisan cosponsors in a short period of time.

APhA and the pharmacy profession are building on the momentum achieved in the last session of Congress. Pharmacists are key members of the health care team, and when federal law recognizes our services, patients will have greater access to coordinated, quality health care. As always, we encourage you to visit PharmacistsProvideCare.com, our newly redesigned website that has detailed information about the impact pharmacists have on improving patient access to health care in your state. Thank you for your continued support!