In the past few weeks, members of the UHCOP APhA-ASP Student Political Action Network Committee developed four resolutions. This week, the student body had the opportunity to vote on these resolutions. The resolution which received the most votes will be submitted to APhA Midyear Regional Meeting (MRM). The resolutions consisted of the following:
Option 1: APhA-ASP supports a reimbursement rate proportional to the percentage of Medicare Part D patients served by the pharmacy.
· Background statement: With the fiscal budget being cut every year, due to the decline in the economy and possible shifts in health care, we may see a decrease in already low reimbursement rates. As we are trying to get more reimbursement for our clinical practices and as we reach out to more patients, we want to make sure that there is a minimal amount of money is allocated for pharmacy practices to ensure that it is viable for us to give the best patient care possible.
Option 2: APhA-ASP encourages pharmacist involvement in physician dispensing of dangerous drugs. APhA-ASP supports the necessity of the pharmacist to be the sole dispenser of Schedule II-V medications in order to ensure patient safety.
· Background statement: For the safety of the patient it is essential that there is an intermediary step between diagnosis and dispensation. If there is not a pharmacist accessible, APhA-ASP supports the utilization of a physician check system. Five states have already starting allowing physician dispensing to occur, and many states may soon follow this practice. We want to have a resolution that enlists pharmacists as the sole dispensers of controlled substances in states, regardless of whether physicians are allowed to dispense medications are not, so that there is an increased assurance of patient safety and a decreased potential for drug diversion.
Option 3: APhA-ASP supports a regulated pharmacy body that incorporates lab values “markers” be included on all newly prescribed medications, a diagnosis and indication should also be included to ensure valid physician and patient relationship.
· Background statement: In rural areas, we see that the practice of E-pharmacy is picking up. A lot of these areas may not have a well-equipped hospital staff, let alone in a pharmacy. In this scenario, the pharmacist is not on site and is contacted via web by the provider or whichever clinician would be dispensing to verify the medication order. To ensure that the pharmacist has adequate information about the patient’s disease state and to make sure that the physician is making the proper recommendation for the diagnosis, we recommend this resolution.
Option 4: : APhA-ASP encourages the development of a national database to which pharmacies can share the necessary patient information for the purpose of a unified patient profile, thus preventing medication errors and abuse.
Background statement: There is currently a resolution that passed in 2007 that states: “APhA-ASP encourages collaboration between public and private healthcare organizations in the development and use of a standardized, secure, electronic, personal health record system to facilitate continuity of care across all practice settings. This record should include, but not be limited to, current diagnoses, allergies, medication history, laboratory data and immunization history.”
We have added this additional sub point to give a means of which to achieve the goal of the 2007 resolution in “the development and use of a standardized, secure, electronic, personal health record system to facilitate continuity of care across all practice settings.”
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After tallying all of the votes, we are proud to declare that the resolution to be presented at MRM will be:
APhA-ASP encourages the development of a national database to which pharmacies can share necessary patient information for the purpose of a unified patient profile, thus preventing medication errors and abuse.
We would like to thank all of the students who voted and remind you to stayed tuned for further updates on the APhA MRM!
