North Carolina Association of Pharmacists Advancing Pharmacy. Improving Health.
Legislative and Policy Update January 18, 2021 Happy New Year Everyone! Happy New Year to all. Let’s hope it is better than 2020 all round. We at NCAP are excited about the upcoming legislative session and are going to work hard to enact the agenda our Board and our Policy & Advocacy Committee have approved.
At the General Assembly Republicans retained control of both houses of the NC General Assembly. In the House there are 69 Republicans and 51 Democrats. In the Senate there are 28 Republicans and 22 Democrats. The Democrats were able to hold on to enough seats to prevent the Republicans from having a veto proof majority. It takes 30 votes in the Senate and 72 votes in the House to override a veto. As we have said before, we support any public official that supports the practice of pharmacy regardless of party affiliation. We have worked hard to establish good relationships with Democrats and Republicans alike, so that regardless of how an election comes out, we are situated to be successful. We have good relationships with key committee chairs and have engaged them on our issues since the election. Members were sworn in on January 13th. They will return to town on January 27th. During that time, the members will organize themselves, get their office assignments, and attend interim committee meetings. Because of the COVID-19 crisis it is likely that access to the building will be limited to essential personnel only. I expect to be able to be admitted to the building and will be there representing you.
Pharmacist Appointed As House Committee Chair: It is exciting to announce that Representative Wayne Sasser was appointed as a Chairperson on the House Health Committee. Having a pharmacist in a position of power within the Health Committee is extremely important in helping to get our issues heard. In addition to Representative Sasser, the other chairpersons on the House Health Committee are: Rep. Kristin Baker (a physician from Cabarrus County); Rep. Donny Lambeth (from Forsyth County); Rep. Larry Potts (from Davidson County); and
Rep. Donna White (a nurse from Johnston County).
Our Agenda: We have a full agenda for this year’s session. Your NCAP leadership has been working hard on finalizing the bill language and we now move to vetting this with stakeholders, preparing supporting materials, updating our website and finding bill sponsors. It is a “step-by-step” process, but if done well, it can lead to a successful legislative session. Here are how things stand:
Legislative Action • • • • •
Address Pharmacy Benefits Manager organizations practices that negatively impact patient care. Modernize and expand Collaborative Practice agreements Pay Parity for Pharmacists Medicine Administration added to pharmacy scope (This would include provision for pharmacists to help with long-acting injectables for mental health patients.) Pharmacist limited prescriptive authority for to help with a number of public health needs in our state. (This public health bill also includes a provision to make permanent the expanded immunization authority that is currently in place under the US DHHS PREP Act Amendment authorization.)
Regulatory Action • • •
Emergency Kits at Nursing Homes and Assisted Living Facilities. CMS regulatory changes at the Federal level including enhanced dispensing fees, supplemental payments for home delivery and COVID and non-COVID related items Finalize work related to pharmacy assistants enhanced training and pay and if ready, begin the regulatory process.
Task Force Work • • •
Exploring work force, training qualifications, and other issues related to pharmacy technicians. Hormonal contraception task force is working on supporting documentation for the inclusion of hormonal contraception in our public health bill Medical cannabis is also on our agenda. Medical cannabis legislation will depend on a number of things falling into place in such a way as to make additional effort on this issue worthwhile. We are in the process of assessing the environment and looking for a path forward. Mississippi recently passed medical cannabis legislation.
Next Steps: We have been very busy since our last update to you. Over the last few weeks we have: • •
Been finalizing and vetting our legislation with stakeholder groups. Finding sponsors and co-sponsors for our legislation.
• •
Developing materials that explain our legislative requests and provide data-based support for our policy proposals. Updating the NCAP website’s advocacy pages.
Once the General Assembly Starts: You will be receiving this update more frequently. Perhaps not each week, but whenever developments occur that you need to be kept up to date on. Also, please keep a lookout for any “legislative alerts” that might come your way. These will consist of a request for you to make a call or write an email at a key time in the legislative process in support of our agenda. Your voice matters very much and as I have said before, we can only be as successful as you help to make us.
Your Role In a recent conversation with legislators I heard the following: “You know a lot of people called to congratulate me on my re-election. But I never heard from a pharmacist.” If you have not done so yet, take a minute to send an email to your legislator. Tell them who you are, what you do and simply say you’re happy they were elected or re-elected. Use the opportunity to tell them that you want to talk more about issues related to pharmacy in the future. If you don’t know who your legislators are you can easily find their names at: https://www.ncleg.gov/FindYourLegislators As always, send your thoughts, input and suggestions to me at solarigovernmentsolutions@gmail.com
Important: Supporting Those Who Support Pharmacy You will be glad to know that PILL PAC, the Political Action Committee that NCAP supports made some significant contributions to General Assembly members prior to election day. We have been saying that we have to support those who support pharmacy and we have done that this year. NCAP has two members on the 4-member board. Mike James and I provided them with the information they needed to make their decisions. Donating to “PILLPAC” is the way that pharmacy can support current legislators who have supported us and elect individuals who will be good for the profession. As we move forward, we will be making improvements to PILL PAC that will make it easier to contribute. And, we need to broaden out those who contribute. This last year about a dozen pharmacists donated the brunt of what PILL PAC gave out. Obviously, that is not a sustainable model. All must do their part and it is not fair to ask a small number of colleagues to do what we all should be doing. We ask you to keep this in mind as we move forward in our overall advocacy plans. You can also help by donating to the NCAP advocacy fund. NCAP’s Advocacy Fund helps to support our grassroots initiatives and the work of your lobbyist. Go to www.ncpharmacists.org and click on Donate under the ‘Advocacy’ tab.
Contributions to PILL PAC can be sent to this address: 209 Fayetteville Street: Raleigh, NC 27601 No amount is too small and every dollar counts.