Drug Topics - October 8, 2007 - (Page 21)

www.drugtopics.com OCTOBER 8, 2007 DRUG TOPICS 21 Cover Story Are you getting pharmacy’s message across? Long content in the background, pharmacists must realize the time to be heard is now Fred Gebhart verage manufacturer price (AMP)… Dispensing fees… Medicaid cuts… Below-cost generic reimbursement… ABC television’s “20/20” exposé on dispensing errors… Pharmacy has long prided itself on being one of the most-trusted professions, but some R.Ph.s say they feel more like a trusted punching bag than a trusted professional. “I put a lot of the blame on the pharmacy associations for not beDT CAPSULE ing more militant,” said Fred Mayer, president of Pharmacists Compared with Planning Service Inc. “Pharmacists have to stand up for the paother professions, tient, not for profits, which is what the associations have been pharmacy keeps doing for years. Pharmacy is a profession, but there are no stana low profile. dards of practice. I blame the associations for not taking a leadership role.” Pharmacy associations acknowledge they are behind the eight ball. “It came as a real shock, the Deficit Reduction Act in 2003 that made huge budget cuts on the back of pharmacy,” said Steven Anderson, president and CEO A of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. “Pharmacy is playing catch-up.” Take the lack of provider status under Medicare and Medicaid. That has hamstrung efforts to obtain reimbursement for professional services, said William Zellmer, deputy executive VP of ASHP. Pharmacy remains dependent on product-based reimbursement. “I lay the blame clearly at our own feet,” he said. “If the profession had been more developed, more organized, in the 1960s, we might have gotten provider status when Medicare was first enacted. Instead, we are part of a coalition working to get provider status today.” That’s good news to one of pharmacy’s newest supporters, the Food Marketing Institute. Pharmacy represents 10% of grocery revenues, said FMI president and CEO Tim Hammonds, but pharmacists have a reputation as lone wolves, not partners. “Pharmacists don’t always think of joining forces with groups facing similar issues,” he said. Not seeking allies was a problem back in 1910, said Florida pharmacist Patrick Ojo. That was the year the Carnegie Foundation published a study of medical education by Abraham Flexner. The Flexner Report created a professional framework for health care that re- Photo: Jim Shive http://www.drugtopics.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Drug Topics - October 8, 2007

Drug Topics - October 8, 2007 Latebreakers Latebreakers in Depth Letters Rx Care Community Practice JP at Large 150 Years of American Pharmacy Hospital Practice Are You Getting Pharmacy's Message Across? Self-Care Government and Law Legal Q&A The Pharmacist as First Responder in Disaster Relief Technology Update New Products Advertisers Index Statement of Ownership Classified Viewpoint

Drug Topics - October 8, 2007

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