Despite the 2020 presidential election threatening to spiral into chaos, ACCP’s team in Washington remains focused on a variety of key initiatives and is preparing some exciting programming for the upcoming virtual ACCP Annual Meeting.

Advocacy Programming at the 2020 ACCP Annual Meeting

To learn more about ACCP’s advocacy work during the COVID-19 crisis, attend the following virtual learning session:
Facing the Future: Advancing the Evolving Payment and Policy Models Beyond COVID (Tues., Oct. 27, 2:30–4:00 p.m. (CDT); available for 1.5 hours of CPE credit)

House Committee on Appropriations Recognizes Value of CMM in Medicare

The misperception lingers within the pharmacy profession that “provider status” will unlock the door to Medicare payment for pharmacists. ACCP agrees that provider status is indeed an important factor in establishing coverage for comprehensive medication management (CMM) services, and the College’s Medicare Initiative will amend section 1831 of the Social Security Act (SSA) to add qualified clinical pharmacists to the list of providers eligible for Medicare payment.

But pharmacists listed as providers in the SAA alone will not guarantee Medicare payment. After all, doctors of dentistry are recognized in the SSA as providers under the Medicare definition of “physician,” but because dental services are not covered by Medicare, dentists do not qualify for Medicare payment.

ACCP also recognizes that, strategically, the provider status approach may be shortsighted in specifically tying pharmacists to Medicare fee-for-service structures, at a time when policy-makers from both parties and across all branches of government are collectively committed to aggressively transitioning physicians and other providers to value-based payment structures. ACCP’s approach is designed purposefully to position clinical pharmacists to participate in evolving, value-based payment structures, not the current fee-for-service model.

As the legislative session on Capitol Hill draws to a close, pharmacist provider status legislative language has once again failed to receive formal, actionable consideration at the committee level, despite receiving sweeping bipartisan support in both chambers. Meanwhile, qualified clinical pharmacists are already being paid for delivering CMM to Medicare beneficiaries (though on a very limited basis) under programs within the Medicare Innovation Center (Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation [CMMI]) through pilots supported by ACCP.

Earlier in the summer, the House Committee on Appropriations released report language highlighting the value that pharmacists bring to patient care teams in providing CMM services. As part of an ongoing effort to expand and develop these CMMI pilots, ACCP wrote to the leaders of the Appropriations Committee, thanking them for recognizing the important work of clinical pharmacists in helping to achieve medication optimization.
Click here to read ACCP’s letter.

ACCP Endorses #BlanketChange for Moms and Babies

As part of ACCP’s ongoing commitment to address the complex and interrelated set of individual, provider, health system, societal, and environmental factors that contribute to disparities in health and health care, we are proud to partner with #BlanketChange. Led by the March of Dimes, the #BlanketChange movement is dedicated to improving the health of U.S. mothers and infants by eliminating racial and ethnic health disparities and driving economic, social, and health equity by focusing on prevention, treatment, and social determinants of health.

With around 10% of births nationwide occurring in counties with limited access to maternity care, #BlanketChange is calling on policy-makers to take swift action to help ensure that all women receive the care and support they need before, during, and after pregnancy, especially mothers and infants of color. Key opportunities include:

• Eliminating maternity deserts by expanding Medicaid and implementing perinatal regionalization policies
• Improving access to quality and affordable preconception, prenatal, and postpartum
• Providing coverage for evidence-based telehealth services for pregnant and postpartum women and supporting alignment of telehealth reimbursement approaches across payers
• Engaging in health system reform, including educating providers on implicit racial bias to better serve the highest-risk populations
• Empowering communities through inclusion, education, social activism, and advocacy
• Advancing work to change social and economic conditions (e.g., poverty, employment, low wages, housing, education) as well as underlying health inequities

Click here to learn more about this important initiative.

ACCP Joins Friends of National Institute of Mental Health Coalition

ACCP is pleased to announce that it will join with leaders from the American Psychiatric Association, American Psychological Association, Federation of Associations in Behavioral & Brain Sciences, Mental Health America, National Alliance on Mental Illness, and National Association of State Mental Health Program Directors to help advocate on behalf of the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH).

The newly formed coalition supports NIMH’s mission of understanding mental health and identifying how to treat mental illnesses through basic biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research to best inform prevention, early intervention, recovery, and cures.

The Friends of NIMH will undertake a variety of activities to support NIMH’s mission, including educating policy-makers and others about the science of mental health, advocating for a strong NIMH budget, and helping to facilitate conversations between NIMH and the stakeholder community.

As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to upend virtually every facet of Americans’ lives, we know now, more than ever, that “mental health is health.” Our nation must address the mental health ramifications of this pandemic well into the future.

For additional information, visit https://friendsofnimh.org.