At this writing, the passage of health care reform legislation appears imminent. This morning, the Democrats announced they now have the necessary 216 votes.

Like many comprehensive proposals, this bill may need to be "tweaked" in years to come as we see the benefits roll out (which in some cases will happen several years from now). While your politics may differ from the current path on the broader aspects of the legislation, this effort was, at least by my account, unprecedented. It includes some major advances for pharmacy.

Intact in the final bill are pharmacy's provisions. We helped to shape those elements, and all of pharmacy advocated their passage. Perhaps the MTM grant programs could have been larger, but what we have is a good move in the right direction.

We will have years of work ahead of us in the regulatory process to assure that our patients get the full benefit of our services. And pharmacists will have to step up and deliver. But the profession's years of work to promote patient care services together with safe and accurate dispensing production may be paying off.

Congrats to our APhA Government Affairs team and our HCR Task Force, not only for their incredible hard work, but for their productivity, effectiveness, and excellent communications with our membership. Congrats too to all of the other pharmacy association government affairs teams. It has been and will continue to be a pleasure working with all of you.

House Democratic leaders expect the vote on HCR to occur between 6 p.m. and midnight this evening. Watch pharmacist.com for news and updates as the vote occurs.