Drug Topics - March 10, 2008 - (Page 43) www.drugtopics.com MARCH 10, 2008 DRUG TOPICS 43 Chains and Business FMI’s new VP talks about challenges facing supermarket pharmacy Sandra Levy atherine M. Polley joined The Food Marketing Institute (FMI) as VP, pharmacy services, in September 2007. Polley was most recently chief policy officer and senior VP of government and professional affairs at the American Pharmacists Association. In 2006, she was co-president of the coalition for Community Pharmacy Action, a combination of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and National Community Pharmacists Association. Polley also worked for six years at NACDS as VP of state government affairs. Prior to that, she spent 18 years at Kmart Corp. Drug Topics recently sat down with Polley to find out her views on the pressing issues of the day. C We have access to new potential advocates up on the hill that we can really educate about what pharmacy brings to the overall healthcare system and help to move our message further along. Which issues are a priority this year? “The No. 1 issue still is Medicaid reimbursement— average manufacturer price (AMP). The Deficit Reduction Act (DRA) of 2005 made changes to the formula that will be reimbursing pharmacies. The Catherine Polley change that was supposed to be implemented in of FMI relishes working with January, but it has been delayed by court action. Be- other pharmacy associations. cause there is still a law on the books, we're going to require legislation to redefine what that pricing formula will look like. That's top of mind to our members. It's worth billions of dollars over the length of the law. The Medicare Part D drug benefit seems to be going very smoothly, but there are still some issues, especially for our smaller, independent and regional operators in how promptly they are paid for providing those pharmacy services to their patients. When do you anticipate that Congress will remedy the issues you discussed? We anticipate legislation moving this Spring. The AMP fix legislation will likely be attached to the package that deals with physician payments in Medicare. That package needs to pass by end of June when the extension passed last year expires. With Medicare Part D—the prompt payment piece—we are hopeful we can do something in 2008. We've been unsuccessful in the past, but again it's an important issue for our members. How do you think the upcoming Presidential election will impact pharmacy? I don't know if it will affect the outcome of the issues, other than it really shortens the window we have to work with this year. What advantages do supermarket pharmacies have in promoting a positive image? From our perspective, there's nobody better suited than supermarket pharmacy to deliver that whole health service because we have health and nutritional aspects of the supermarket and we blend those with pharmacy offerings. DT How many pharmacies do FMI supermarkets operate ? FMI member companies operate 14,000 supermarket pharmacies. It's rare these days that a supermarket opens without a pharmacy being incorporated in it. I think we'll continue to see those numbers grow. Why did FMI launch a pharmacy public affairs program this year? Over the past 10 years, supermarket pharmacies grew more than 60% and they now fill about 15% of all prescriptions. From a supermarket standpoint it is becoming an important department within the store just like the fresh fruit, produce, and meat departments. The members came to FMI and wanted to launch a pharmacy advocacy program with the goal of ensuring that federal laws and regulations recognize the important role that pharmacists play and to make sure that supermarket pharmacy's voice is heard within those debates. It's so key here in Washington, D.C., to work with other national pharmacy and other health-related associations to make sure that our voice is being heard on the hill. The beauty in bringing FMI into this equation is we can work in tandem with other national pharmacy associations to strengthen and unify that voice. Because FMI is on the supermarket side, we have different relationships with members of Congress, so we can often get into offices and open doors that traditional pharmacy folks wouldn't have access to. We (FMI) are working on issues such as country of origin labeling and food safety issues. A lot of those pieces of legislation originate in different committees. http://www.drugtopics.com
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