Patient Access To Pharmacists Care Coalition (PAPCC)

To many people all a pharmacist does is count pills or dispense medication. But the profession of pharmacy has moved tremendously beyond just dispensing medications to providing more patient oriented services. Pharmacists think it is time for a change and are coming together to fight for what many believe should already be considered a responsibility of a pharmacist. As healthcare professionals many pharmacists are not recognized as health care providers and consequently are limited in scope of practice, as well as compensation.1 However, this is not a universal or federal responsibility.1 With this being said pharmacists cannot be reimbursed by Medicare Part B under Section 1861 of the Social Security Act like many other healthcare providers.1

With pharmacists incorporated into the healthcare team this allows pharmacists to utilize their specialized knowledge/skill and ease of access in order to help optimize patient care.4 So how can pharmacists gain provider status? To accomplish this mission the Patient Access to Pharmacists’ Care Coalition (PAPCC) was founded in 2014 in order to represent the collective effort to help pharmacist gain provider status so that they could provide patients with even greater quality service by broadening the access to service.1 This coalition consists of approximately 22 different organizations (pharmacy chains, associations as well as other stakeholders) who have actively helped advance these efforts since the introduction of the initial bill, H.R. 4190, by representatives Guthrie, Butterfield and Young, to amend the SSA.1,14 Federally the interest of this united effort is to provide patients service, within the scope of practice, in areas that are medically underserved.5 Currently, there are a lot people with limited access to healthcare in the rural areas this is where pharmacist will most benefit in their crusade for provider status.6 With this small step pharmacists can prove their value as healthcare providers and make a statement that will resonate with physicians as well as other healthcare providers of their importance to the team. The bill was recently reintroduced to the house in January of 2015 with

Currently, there are approximately 16 states without provider status, including Massachusetts.8Since January 2013, two bills, HB 2060 and SB 484, have been under review in Massachusetts which proposes to include pharmacist in the definition of healthcare provider and what services pharmacists can benefit from under the collaborative practice agreement.9,15 In efforts to advocate for the passing of this bill into law there will be an opportunity for individuals to vote on the bill on November 17, 2015, in addition to sending letters in support of the bill.10 While this is definitely a step in the right direction there is still so much more that must be done. Hopefully this will be one of many positive milestones in the effort to progress into provider