NACDS continues to make progress on advancing provider status in the 115th Congress. Last week, The Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Areas Enhancement Act (S. 109) was reintroduced with the bipartisan original co-sponsorship of more than a quarter of the Senate.

The cosponsors would like the bill to retain its number from the previous Congress—H. R. 592.

The return of the legislation in the House is expected shortly, where the bill currently has more than 100 original cosponsors. The cosponsors would like the bill to retain its number from the previous Congress—H. R. 592. In order to do that, the cosponsors will need to introduce the legislation right after a bill numbered H.R. 591, which should not take too long. The House is not in session this week, so it’s possible the bill could be formally reintroduced in the House next week.

NACDS is proactively urging support in the 115th Congress for the Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Areas Enhancement Act (H.R. 592/S. 314), which would increase access to state-approved pharmacy services for underserved Medicare patients.

The letter provides compelling reasons to support the bill, noting that with 30 million Americans set to enroll in Medicare over the next two decades, it will be harder for patients to access care in their communities…

As part of The Patient Access to Pharmacists Care Coalition, NACDS RxIMPACT launched a membership-wide grasstops campaign to encourage NACDS member companies to build congressional support for the re-introduction of the legislation in January 2017. There is also a letter currently circulating in the House of Representatives from Reps. Brett Guthrie (R-KY) and G.K. Butterfield (D-NC) urging their colleagues to support the legislation by becoming original cosponsors of the bill, which at the end of the 114th Congress had 296 cosponsors in the House and 51 in the Senate, an excellent show of bipartisan and bicameral support.

When the 115th Congress convenes in January, it will welcome 63 newly-elected members of Congress from 28 states. The letter provides compelling reasons to support the bill, noting that with 30 million Americans set to enroll in Medicare over the next two decades, it will be harder for patients to access care in their communities and the impact will be felt by those who can least afford it: the nation’s medically underserved populations. Emphasizing pharmacy’s untapped potential for underserved populations, the letter states that 86 percent of Americans live within five miles of a pharmacy.

There are currently nine cosponsors in the Senate and 35 in the House who have agreed to cosponsor the legislation in the 115th Congress.