C. Edwin Webb, Pharm.D., MPH, longtime director of Government and Professional Affairs and ACCP associate executive director, retired July 31 after serving in a part-time role since January 2018. He will continue to serve the College’s Board of Regents and executive staff as a consultant.
     An ACCP member since 1988, Webb received his B.S. (1972) and Pharm.D. (1973) degrees from the University of Tennessee College of Pharmacy. He received an MPH degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1985. In June 1993, Webb completed a primary health care policy fellowship with the Health Resources and Services Administration of the U.S. Public Health Service. He has practiced and taught in hospital, clinic, and community settings.
     In total, Webb served the pharmacy profession for almost 30 years in the areas of policy analysis, advocacy, and professional affairs. Webb joined ACCP in April 2000 as its inaugural director of Government and Professional Affairs and shortly thereafter established a new College office in Washington, D.C. Before coming to ACCP, he worked in professional affairs at the American Pharmaceutical Association (now the American Pharmacists Association) and in professional/government affairs at the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP).
     In addition to managing ACCP’s Washington office and directing the College’s Government and Professional Affairs, Webb represented ACCP at national and regional symposia; during meetings with pharmacy, health care, and consumer groups; and through interactions with members of Congress, regulators, and legislative staff.
     ACCP has been fortunate to have on staff someone with such a unique combination of pharmacy association experience, leadership ability, analytical skills, and personal integrity. Webb’s leadership helped establish the ACCP/ASHP/VCU Pharmacy Policy Fellow Program, now in its 11th year. He was instrumental in the work of the multi-organizational Council on Credentialing in Pharmacy to provide guidance, standards, and promotion of the profession’s credentialing, accreditation, and certification efforts. Webb also led ACCP’s collaboration with AACP in 2011–2012 to establish the Institute of Medicine (now the National Academy of Medicine) Fellowship in Pharmacy. Most recently, he was integral in developing ACCP’s Standards of Practice for Clinical Pharmacists and the policy constructs, practice standards, and desired deliverables contained in the RFA (request for application) for the $2.4 million ACCP grant to study the implementation of comprehensive medication management in primary care medical practices. He also led the expansion of ACCP’s Washington, D.C., staff in 2006–2018.

ACCP Establishes the C. Edwin Webb Professional Advocacy Award

Throughout his professional career, Webb has served as a valued leader, mentor, and friend to countless pharmacist colleagues, including the executive and volunteer leadership of ACCP and other pharmacy associations and ACCP members, students, and trainees. In recognition of his commitment, vision, and many contributions to the advancement of clinical pharmacy, the Board of Regents has established the C. Edwin Webb Professional Advocacy Award, which will issue its first call for nominations in 2018–2019. The award will recognize an ACCP member who:

• Has made outstanding contributions to the visibility and value of clinical pharmacy in national political, policy, intraprofessional, and/or interprofessional arenas;
• Has assembled a record of mentoring others who have gone on to assume a health professions and/or health policy leadership role; and
• Is recognized as an ambassador for clinical pharmacy both within and outside the profession.

        Asked to provide perspective on his career with ACCP, Webb commented:

Being a member of the senior executive staff of ACCP for almost 2 decades has been the ultimate professional opportunity – and experience – of my career. The core values, mission, and purpose of the College and its members, from the founding in 1979, have made representing and articulating the practice, research, and teaching activities of clinical pharmacists the simplest and still most profound pharmacy advocacy message in Washington, D.C. – “the patient-centered, team-based practice of clinical pharmacists that optimizes medication use.” I am forever grateful to Drs. Elenbaas and Maddux, and the many Boards of Regents they have led, for their absolute commitment to the importance of this work and to their faith in me and our D.C. staff to execute the College’s advocacy agenda. The work is incremental and never-ending. But it is succeeding in its purpose. I have been blessed to be a part of it.

Announcing the 2018 ACCP-PAC PRN Challenge

For the fourth consecutive year, ACCP is pleased to announce the launch of the ACCP-PAC PRN Challenge.

     Consistent with the priorities set by ACCP’s strategic plan and the College’s organization-wide commitment to clinical practice transformation, ACCP’s Washington, D.C., office has focused for the past 4 years on an advocacy effort that calls on Congress to enact legislation to provide Medicare patients with coverage for comprehensive medication management (CMM) as part of evolving payment and care delivery models.

     ACCP is now specifically calling on PRN members to demonstrate their commitment to the College’s advocacy priorities through contributions to ACCP’s Political Action Committee (ACCP-PAC).

How the Challenge Works

The ACCP-PAC PRN Challenge will determine which PRN provides the greatest PAC support. PRN members who contribute to the PAC online will have an option to designate a PRN to receive credit for their contribution.

• The challenge will recognize two winners:
  • The PRN whose members contribute the most money in total; and
  • The PRN with the highest percentage of members who contribute to the PAC.
• ACCP members who belong to multiple PRNs can make multiple contributions in the name of each PRN, but only one PRN can receive credit for any single contribution.
• Unlike contributions to the Frontiers Fund, ACCP-PAC cannot accept contributions directly from PRNs. All PAC contributions must be made by individuals from personal funds. Because of Federal Election Commission (FEC) regulations, PAC contributions are NOT deductible as charitable donations for federal tax purposes and must be made from personal funds and/or post-tax dollars.
• To qualify for the Challenge, PRN members must contribute at least $5. However, to increase the funds available to give to candidates this election season, the College urges PRN members to contribute at least $25 to this effort.
• The winning PRNs will be awarded coveted, preferential timeslots for PRN business meetings at the next ACCP Annual Meeting.
• Results will be announced at the ACCP Global Conference on Clinical Pharmacy in Seattle, Washington, this October.
• Please contribute online at www.accpaction.com.

     PRN leaders and members are encouraged to take the time to highlight the challenge in PRN meetings and online communications to PRN members. For more information, contact John McGlew ([email protected] or 202-621-1820).

Who Receives ACCP-PAC Support?

All decisions regarding financial contributions to candidates are made by the PAC Governing Council according to certain established criteria:

• Position on key health care committees in Congress;
• Proven support for pharmacy and health care–related issues; and
• Previous health care experience.

     The key health care–related committees in the House of Representatives are the Appropriations, Ways & Means, and Energy & Commerce committees and, in the Senate, the Appropriations, Finance & Health, Education, Labor & Pensions (HELP) committees.
     ACCP members who contribute to the PAC may recommend candidates to receive contributions. All PAC contributor recommendations will be considered; however, not all requests may be accommodated. The ACCP-PAC Governing Council must approve all candidate contributions.
     As a federal committee, the ACCP-PAC can only contribute to candidates who are running for federal office (candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives or U.S. Senate, not state legislatures or gubernatorial races).
     Thank you for supporting this important initiative. For more information, visit the ACCP-PAC website at www.accpaction.com/ or contact John McGlew ([email protected]).

Grassroots Action Alert: Strengthening Medicare Through Comprehensive Medication Management

In keeping with ACCP’s core values and mission, the College is fully committed to an organization-wide priority of clinical practice advancement and practice transformation. Central to this effort, ACCP’s Washington office has focused on an advocacy initiative called the “Medicare Initiative” that calls on Congress to enact legislation to provide Medicare patients with coverage for comprehensive medication management (CMM) as part of broader reforms to establish a patient-centered interprofessional and collaborative approach to health care delivery that removes existing professional and payment silos.
     ACCP’s focus on the service (the “what”), rather than the provider (the “who”), and its requirement that these services be delivered under formal collaborative practice agreements or clinical privileges granted by the health care setting in which the pharmacist practices have played a significant role in facilitating the College’s progress on Capitol Hill and its ongoing outreach to the physician community.
     ACCP’s Medicare Initiative is intended to position clinical pharmacists to participate in evolving care delivery and payment models. The process of care ACCP proposes is consistent with the vision for medication management in the patient-centered medical home (PCMH) endorsed by the Patient-Centered Primary Care Collaborative (PCPCC) and is necessary to achieve many of the quality metrics established under evolving Medicare alternative payment models to help ensure medication optimization, enhance patient safety, promote value-based rather than volume-based care to patients, and contribute to greater affordability and sustainability for the Medicare program.
     Since launching the Medicare Initiative, ACCP has made significant progress on Capitol Hill, resulting in meaningful interest from a bipartisan group of lawmakers who recognize the value of a truly patient-centered, team-based approach to health care and understand that “getting the medications right” through consistent CMM is a vital component of evolving payment and care models both in Medicare and across all payers and delivery systems.
     However, members of Congress also need to hear from clinical pharmacists delivering direct patient care services in their state or district. The College has prepared a letter to Congress describing its Medicare Initiative that you can review and edit. You can send this letter in just a few easy clicks, but for maximum impact, you are encouraged to personalize the letter by sharing additional information about your clinical practice and the patients you care for.
     Please take the time to personalize the letter by providing additional information about your practice and the patients you care for. Please also consider inviting your senators and representative to visit your practice setting so that they can learn firsthand about the value of clinical pharmacists on the health care delivery team.      Simply click here to visit ACCP’s Legislative Action Center and follow the instructions to send your message to your representative and senators. Thank you for participating in this important advocacy effort!

Now Accepting Applications – ACCP/ASHP/VCU Pharmacy Policy Fellow Program

Launched in 2006 under the guidance of Dr. Ed Webb, the Pharmacy Policy Fellow Program is a collaborative effort of ACCP, the School of Pharmacy at the Medical College of Virginia/Virginia Commonwealth University, and the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists.
     Pharmacists who participate in the program have the opportunity to gain real-world insight into health care policy analysis and development through immersion in the congressional environment. Fellows are actively mentored in legislative evaluation, policy development, research, and writing while integrating practical experience with theory. The 2017–2018 Fellow, Nellie Jafari, has spent the past 12 months working in the office of Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut.
     The 2018–2019 Fellow, Tina Chhabra, recently completed a fellowship at Biogen Inc., a biotech firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in regulatory sciences and safety and benefit-risk management through the MCPHS University Biopharmaceutical Industry Fellowship Program. Chhabra holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and a doctorate in pharmacy, also from VCU.
     The program provides a unique health care policy learning experience designed to demonstrate the value of pharmacy-government interaction and to facilitate practical contributions to the effective use of scientific and pharmaceutical knowledge in government policy development. Fellows spend the first 2 months of the program with each of the professional organizations as members of their respective government and professional affairs staff. In September of the fellow year, Fellows begin working in a legislative environment requiring health care input on the staff of an individual senator or representative or a relevant congressional committee.
     The program provides Fellows with an enriching opportunity to develop legislative evaluation and policy development skills, improve their research and writing skills, and integrate practical policy experience with theory. The Fellow is expected to undertake a wide array of responsibilities, including researching and preparing briefs on health care issues, assisting with policy decisions, drafting memoranda, and planning, organizing, and carrying out program and management objectives.
     Fellows typically seek congressional office placement with a committee that predominantly deals with health issues, such as the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions (HELP) Committee and Senate Finance Committee or the House Ways and Means or Energy and Commerce Committees.

Applications for the 2019–2020 Pharmacy Policy Fellow Program

Interested candidates should visit the Pharmacy Policy Fellow Program website for more information and instruction on submitting an application. Interested candidates should visit the website for more information and instruction on submitting an application.

Contact Us! For more information on any of ACCP’s advocacy efforts, please contact the ACCP Government and Professional Affairs Team:

John K. McGlew
Director, Government Affairs
[email protected]

Daniel S. Aistrope, Pharm.D., BCACP
Director, Clinical Practice Advancement
[email protected]

Katherine Pham, Pharm.D., BCPPS
Director of Policy and Professional Affairs
[email protected]

American College of Clinical Pharmacy
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Washington, DC 20004-1017
(202) 621-1820