On February 11, 2026, in the US House of Representatives, the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Energy and Commerce held a hearing titled Lowering Health Care Costs for All Americans: An Examination of the Prescription Drug Supply Chain. 

Executive leaders of organizations including PhRMA, the Biotechnology Innovation Organization, and the National Community Pharmacists Association provided testimony at the hearing. ACCP submitted comments reminding the committee to focus on improving the overall effectiveness and value of medication therapy, not simply the cost of medicines, and calling for legislative action to add a defined comprehensive clinical pharmacy benefit to the Medicare program. 

With rural health issues central to the administration and Republicans in Congress, ACCP proposed that for rural communities, access to clinical pharmacy services would help create efficiencies across the health delivery system. Clinical pharmacists help deliver enhanced productivity for the entire health care team, allowing other team members to be more efficient in their own patient care responsibilities. Physicians are able to dedicate more time to the diagnostic and treatment selection process, enabling them to be more efficient, see more patients, and spend more time providing medical care. Team members are freed up to practice at the highest level of their own scopes of practice by fully using the qualified clinical pharmacist’s skills and training to coordinate the medication use process as a full team member. 

The comments also reminded Congress that ACCP’s advocacy proposal is supported by the Primary Care Collaborative, in which many of the major primary care medical organizations are actively involved. Clinical pharmacists help ensure that older adults’ medication use is effectively coordinated and, in doing so, enhance their health care outcomes, contributing directly to Medicare’s goals for quality and affordability. 

ACCP is currently working with the GOP Doctors Caucus, an informal congressional body of Republican members of Congress with medical and health care provider backgrounds dedicated to patient-centered health care policy. The caucus often provides meaningful guidance to congressional Republican leadership. 

For more information, visit the ACCP-PAC website at www.accpaction.org or contact John McGlew ([email protected]).