“Many of the bills we had hoped would pass won’t make it,” Culley said. “In other instances we have been successful at bottling up bills in committee that would not have helped independent pharmacies. Now we will try to pass some of our legislation by amending other bills to ensure the best possible outcome for community pharmacies across Texas.”
While TrueCare and other pharmacy groups are working to find new ways to pass some parts of the pharmacy legislative agenda, one important proposal SB 1106 by state Sen. Leticia Van de Putte, D-San Antonio, was waiting late Friday to be set for a vote on the House floor by the Calendars committee. That is the prompt pay bill and State Rep. Chuck Hopson, D-Jacksonville, will sponsor the Senate version of that legislation when it moves to final passage on the House floor. 
“TrueCare has made a big impact in the Texas Legislative process and we are setting the standard for both state and federal efforts to advocate for community pharmacy. (See story below on PBA Health/TrueCare’s recent efforts in Washington, D.C.),” said TrueCare Government Affairs Director John Heal. “Our legislative team is helping move the views of community pharmacists forward and making a positive difference in the way our industry is viewed at the state capitol and in the hallways of Congress.” The Texas Legislative session ends the first week in June and TrueCare, the Texas Pharmacy Association and the Texas Pharmacy Business Council are working together to move proposals that would benefit community pharmacy through the legislative process. 
Partners With NCPA To Push Federal Community Pharmacy LegislationPBA Health/TrueCare corporate leaders, legislative team members and Texas pharmacists joined the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) in Washington, D.C. last week to help advocate for community pharmacy with Congressional leaders and meet with trade regulators about concerns with the influence of CVS Caremark Corp. over prescriptions and patient privacy. A major sponsor of the Washington initiative, PBA Health/TrueCare met with several Congressional leaders including U.S. Rep. John Conyers, a Detroit Democrat who is a leader in the health care debate taking place on a federal level. Conyers is the founder and chair of the Congressional Universal Health Care Task Force and he recently introduced the United States National Health Insurance Act (HR 676). Members of the team also met with Rep. Stenie Hoyer, the majority leader in the U.S. House of Representatives. 
PBA Health/TrueCare CEO Nick Smock, Texas Government Affairs Director John Heal, Dale Smith, Director of TriNet Third Party Services, and Jim Young, Manager of PBM Contracting, represented TrueCare at various meetings with the FTC and Congressional leaders. In addition Texas pharmacy owners Kim Perrone McLaughlin and Paula Perrone, owners of Perrone Pharmacy in Fort Worth, were at the event and attended the meetings with the TrueCare team. 
Paula Perrone, whose father was a Texas pharmacist for about 50 years, said working with PBA Health/TrueCare and NCPA at the Washington event opened her eyes to the importance of pharmacists and pharmacy owners being involved in the legislative process.
“PBA Health provided a whole other business dimension to the practice of pharmacy to those we contacted in Washington, D.C.,” she said. “Given the sensitive nature of contracts and how they can and can’t be negotiated, having the expertise PBA provided was critical to our discussions.” “Plus the fact that we have PBM legislation pending in both Washington and Texas makes their expertise even more invaluable as we move forward in this process.” Perrone, who practiced law for more than 30 years before taking over the family pharmacy with her sister after her father’s death, said legislative advocacy and pharmacy have much in common. “It’s about building relationships,” she said, “and that is so important. You want to do business with people you trust and who understand your values. That’s the way my father did business for over 50 years. It’s all about relationship building.” Smock said the NCPA event was a continuing effort by PBA Health/TrueCare to speak out on issues important to community pharmacy. “It is imperative that we continue to increase our legislative affairs efforts on behalf of community pharmacy, both in state legislatures and in Congress,” said Smock. “We are happy to partner with groups like NCPA on efforts to represent community pharmacy around the country.” Smock and Smith both attended the FTC meetings to discuss the negative impact of the $26 billion CVS/Caremark merger in 2007. They joined NCPA in urging the FTC to re-examine that merger because of its negative impact on community pharmacy. FTC employees were told that that CVS has access to the competition’s drug prices and sensitive information like customer identities because it controls Caremark. They also learned that CVS was using higher copayments and data on patients who don't buy from them to attract their business. 
“This meeting was with the highest level of personnel including the newly appointed Commissioner Jon Leibowitz,” Smith said. “Our pharmacies have been submitting summaries of cases to NCPA that show the problems that can occur in instances where these kind of mergers affect the health care options of our patients.”
Holly Whitcomb Henry, RPh, and NCPA President told the FTC that "Community pharmacists have received many complaints from patients and pharmacists about CVS Caremark's higher prices and questionable marketing practices.” And she noted that despite promises to the contrary, CVS/Caremark uses information on where the consumer fills their prescription and uses that information to steer them to CVS stores or Caremark mail order. “That's anti-competitive and, ultimately, anti-consumer," she said. Pharmacy supporters urged the FTC to take a number of steps, including investigating allegations of anticompetitive and deceptive conduct by CVS Caremark; requiring CVS Caremark to treat all pharmacies in a nondiscriminatory fashion; and ensuring that the company creates an ironclad barrier between CVS and Caremark so that competitively sensitive Caremark information cannot be used by its retail operations. 1. PBA Health/TrueCare representatives who helped advocate for independent pharmacy included (from left to right) Texas Government Affairs Director John Heal; Dale Smith, Director of TriNet Third Party Services for PBA Health; PBA Health/TrueCare CEO Nick Smock; and Jim Young, Manager of PBM Contracting for PBA Health. 2. U.S. Reps. John Conyers of Michigan and Diane Watson of California discuss health care issues following a meeting PBA Health/TrueCare attended. 3. Fort Worth Pharmacist Kim Perrone McLaughlin, PBA CEO Nick Smock, U.S. Rep. John Conyers, Texas Pharmacy Owner Paula Perrone and PBA’s Jim Young. |
We Need Your Help!
The narrow margin of Texas Pharmacist Chuck Hopson’s victory is another example of how one election can make a difference in independent pharmacy’s ability to get its message to the decision makers of the future. We must be ready and able to work with both political parties and with a variety of different lawmakers to ensure that our voice will be heard. Today we must decide if we want to be participants, or spectators in the legislative and regulatory arenas. Participants have a say in their destiny. Spectators watch from the sidelines and read tomorrow’s newspaper to find out what happened. We must be proactive, and not reactive. In the past, many of you have shown a commitment to the future of pharmacy by supporting the Texas Pharmacy Survival Fund, which has been instrumental in protecting the interests of independent pharmacy. Today pharmacies continue to reap the rewards from the work of the Survival Fund as it expands its grassroots efforts to educate legislators, opinion makers and the general public on issues important to independent pharmacy. We need your help again. In January we will face another legislative session and we cannot afford to wait two months to begin getting out pharmacy’s message to new legislators and legislative leaders. There is much work to be done and pharmacy needs your help to ensure that we maintain our momentum. Our voices must be heard in Austin. Please make a contribution to the future of independent pharmacy through the Pharmacy Survival Fund. The stakes have never been so high. Respectfully,
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Tammy Gray |
Carlos Solis |
Doyl Langwell |
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Rene Garza |
Allan Pavia |
David Haney |
TrueCare Texas -
John Heal |