The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) proudly represented the pharmacy profession today at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services’ (CMS) “Patients over Paperwork” Initiative’s 2-year anniversary. The initiative is designed to reduce burdensome and unnecessary regulations and guidelines so that clinicians and providers can focus on their primary mission—improving patients’ health.

APhA member Stuart Beatty, PharmD, BCACP, FAPhA, was one of three clinicians to present remarks and participate in panels, alongside CMS Administrator Seema Verma. “Pharmacists share and appreciate CMS’s goal of reducing burden in order to provide greater focus on patient-centered care, innovation, and outcomes,” Beatty said.

Because of CMS’s efforts to reduce the amount of paperwork to deliver care, Beatty cited examples of how he is now able to focus his efforts on the patient care plan to improve the health of his diabetes patient.

“Due to the documentation and history changes from CMS, I spent more than 75% of my time developing a plan for this [70 year old obese male] patient, including how to navigate Ramadan with diabetes,” Beatty noted. “In nine months and only one additional office visit with a physician, his hemoglobin A1c has gone from 12.5% to 8.3%.”

As a representative of APhA, Beatty also highlighted the evolving role of pharmacists in health care and how additional changes in CMS policy could help pharmacists have an even greater impact on patient care.

“When I speak at multi-disciplinary conferences, the issue has not been on what pharmacists can do to help, but rather how can practices find a way to resource their involvement,” Beatty said. “I encourage CMS to facilitate sustainable mechanisms for inclusion of pharmacists in team-based models.”