Educating policy-makers to effect Rx change
Grassroots advocacy is essential in getting pharmacy’s message to elected officials to effect change. It’s not a one-time engagement; it’s a consistent, compelling, year-round drumbeat of communication and conversation that tells the story of the value of pharmacy and its impact on advancing pro-patient, pro-pharmacy initiatives.
The NACDS RxImpact grassroots advocacy program is a highly effective resource for pharmacy professionals to learn how to engage and educate lawmakers about key pharmacy issues. The best people to talk about pharmacy issues are those who work day to day on the front lines of patient care. They are the ones who can convey to elected officials how the laws they help implement impact the practical work they do in pharmacies every day serving patients.
Getting involved is easy.
Joining the NACDS RxImpact Team connects you with online resources, policy updates and calls to action as part of a community dedicated to promoting quality care.
The NACDS RxImpact Training Program is really where the process starts in taking what advocates know about pharmacy issues and teaching them how to effectively communicate and advocate these issues to elected officials. This face-to-face training can help advocates understand how to effectively communicate with policy-makers.
The training program is available for chain retail companies, state pharmacy associations and pharmacy schools, and can be certified for participants to receive continuing education credits.
NACDS has conducted 14 training programs in 2015, with more scheduled for the remainder of the year.
If you really want to see what advocacy in action looks like, this event is not to be missed. The NACDS RxImpact Day on Capitol Hill brings advocates from across the nation to Washington, D.C., to educate members of Congress about the importance of pro-pharmacy policy and the need for quality healthcare reform. This annual, two-day event includes educational programming that helps attendees hit the ground running before their meetings on Capitol Hill.
To give you a sense of the impact that these white-coated pharmacists, pharmacy executives, students and others have on Capitol Hill, this past March, NACDS welcomed more than 350 attendees from 44 states, conducting more than 460 congressional meetings.
During the Total Store Expo in Denver, NACDS will be launching registration for the 2016 NACDS RxImpact Day on Capitol Hill set for March 16 to 17, 2016. It’s never too early to get engaged for this impactful, well-attended advocacy event.
Following this high-energy event, pharmacy advocates find that keeping up the momentum of engagement is key. NACDS RxImpact Pharmacy Tours and in-district activities can help keep up the drumbeat about the importance of pharmacy in the healthcare delivery system. It is by far one of the most compelling ways to illustrate — in person — what pharmacists can do for patients. These tours represent the intersection of where pharmacy policy meets the practical services that pharmacists provide for patients every day.
So far in 2015, NACDS has surpassed 150 in-district activities, which include pharmacy tours with elected officials, pharmacy meetings with district staff members from congressional offices and other events, such as “coffee with your Congress member” or town hall meetings.
At NACDS and with our chain members, we talk a lot about the importance of educating elected officials about policies that impact pharmacy. Pharmacy tours have resulted in members of Congress co-sponsoring bills and supporting policies once they have an opportunity to see firsthand the role the pharmacist plays in helping patients take their medications as prescribed, administering vaccinations or providing screenings or other services.
Just one of many great examples of how a pharmacy tour can impact public policy involved a recent pharmacy tour by a member of the U.S. House of Representative from the Midwest. Afterward, a member of her staff contacted NACDS and said that because of the experience on that pharmacy tour in her district, she decided to cosponsor H.R. 592, the Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Areas Enhancement Act. This bill would enable pharmacists to provide to Medicare patients in underserved communities services that pharmacists already are providing for other patients under state law.
This kind of personal engagement with elected officials really speaks to the effectiveness of these pharmacy tours.
In addition to the core components of its grassroots advocacy program, NACDS recognizes that cultivating relationships with lawmakers goes a long way in building an understanding of pharmacy’s issues. The NACDS RxImpact Key Contact program formalizes the linkage between pharmacy executives and members of Congress, and utilizes these relationships on an ongoing basis to promote pharmacy’s policy priorities.
And new this year is the NACDS RxImpact Key Contact PLUS Program. This four-part leadership webinar series offers Key Contacts opportunities to hear from national grassroots advocacy experts on how to build and strengthen relationships with elected officials through in-district activities, political engagement and communications vehicles. This deeper level of engagement shows pharmacy advocates at all levels how to effectively build quality relationships with elected officials. In the next few months, 30 participants from 17 states will have completed the webinar program, representing 15 NACDS member companies.
In Washington, D.C., and state capitals across the country, legislation will be passed and laws will be enacted. Engagement is impactful. Having a consistent, compelling and effective grassroots advocacy strategy is the best way to affect change that will have a powerful and positive impact on pharmacy.