NACDS CEO reiterates association’s fight against PBMs, makes push for provider status

NACDS President and CEO Steven C. Anderson again reiterated pharmacy’s important role in the nation’s national health care system and delivered straight talk about what this industry is facing.

“Too often, the middlemen in the system—the pharmacy benefit managers—operate in secrecy,” Anderson said on day two of Total Store Expo in Boston. “They reimburse pharmacies below their costs, and steer patients to the pharmacies they own. All while inflating patients’ costs, and interfering with their care.”

Similarly, Anderson expressed frustration over barriers to the full potential of retail health. ”We know how much more retail health could do for America. But there are stodgy scope-of-practice laws in some states,” he said. “Payment for services can be inadequate, or non-existent. There is protectionism by some groups of healthcare providers. And healthcare economics have made it hard to fully leverage our industry’s scale.”

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But Anderson was hopeful and ebullient about progress on both of these issues.

“I am here to tell you that this association is firing on all cylinders,” Anderson said. “Together we’re getting after these challenges. And that is a credit to the engagement and expertise of the NACDS Board of Directors and membership—and a credit to the passion and proficiency of the NACDS staff.”

The association’s call for “PBM Reform Now” is reaching the tipping point of awareness in the nation’s capital and in the states, Anderson said.

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“When we started talking with government about DIR fees and PBM reform…eyes would glaze over,” he said. “It was simply too complicated. But now, as understanding deepens, eyes light up, voices rise, and the call for PBM reform grows louder and more fervent. Today, Republicans and Democrats in the U.S. Congress, and in the state legislatures, understand what it means for their constituents, communities, employers, and pharmacies when PBM middlemen profit at their expense.”

The ball is in Congress’s court to get PBM reform done now, Anderson said.

Additionally, Anderson discussed NACDS’ continued push for federal provider status legislation, the Equitable Community Access to Pharmacist Services Act (HR1770/S2477), alongside the Future of Pharmacy Care Coalition. The bipartisan bill would ensure that seniors in Medicare have access to pharmacy services. 

“For starters, we’re protecting Americans’ access to pharmacy services,” he said. “NACDS and allies recently launched ‘Your Care Coalition’ for this purpose. NACDS also is working with another group—the Future of Pharmacy Care Coalition—for a federal bill to ensure that seniors in Medicare have access to pharmacy services.”

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