Call to Advocacy

By: Annie (Stella) Kliewer

In September 2022 ASHP had their legislative day in Washington D.C. Soon after ASHP asked all of their affiliate associations to reach out to their U.S. Congress members in support of each of the following bills:

·         H.R. 7213 - Equitable Community Access to Pharmacist Services Act

o   Would allow Medicare patients access to various treatment and testing services that pharmacists are licensed to provide and allow pharmacists to respond to ongoing and future public health threats

·         H.R. 4390 - Protect 340B Act

o   Bipartisan legislation prohibiting discriminatory policies against 340B providers by a PBM, group health plan or other entities

·         H.R. 1384/S.445 - Mainstreaming Addiction Treatment Act included in Restoring Hope for Mental Health and Well-being Act of 2022.

o   This bill would eliminate the need for an X-waiver, increasing access to medications for opioid use disorder for patients who struggle with addiction

·         Protect Funding for Pharmacy Residency Programs

o   CMS has been clawing back funding from many health-system affiliated residency programs.

o   CMS is alleging that standard hospital business and training practices violate its requirements for residency programs but lack guidance on this issue thus many programs do not know how to proceed in order to retain funding

o   Ask: Request that your congressional offices ask CMS to suspend cost disallowances until the agency provides guidance answering questions surrounding residency compliance.

MSHP would greatly appreciate you reaching out to your U.S. Congress member regarding the above issues. You can find who your legislator is here. At the link to find your legislator, it will also have a contact button listed. Please reach out to your legislators using that link!

The MSHP Public Policy Committee did not create a form letter as often legislators will toss form letters in the trash because it isn't a personal message from a constituent. A message to your legislator doesn't have to be long but it being personally written by you will go a long way! Here you will find the leave-behinds that ASHP provided to members at ASHP Legislative Day so feel free to send that with your email or use it to draft your email to them. The more of us from the state of Missouri reaching out the better chance of our voices being heard!