In the News

The Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition (SCPC) unveiled a new ad campaign that calls on Congress to pass the Preserving Patient Access to Long-Term Care Pharmacies Act (HR 5031/S 3159) and highlights the negative effects recent Medicare Part D drug pricing policy changes have had on seniors’ ability to access needed prescriptions.

The Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition (SCPC), the leading voice for the nation’s long-term care (LTC) pharmacy community, released the following statement in support of the newly introduced PBM Price Transparency and Accountability Act. 

I’ve spent most of my career in public service, including time in the United States and Michigan House of Representatives, City Council, and Board of Commissioners. Throughout these roles, one thing has been clear: when Washington policies overlook the realities of rural communities, rural communities are the ones who pay the price. In less than a month, changes to Medicare Part D reimbursement threaten to financially devastate long-term care pharmacies and the nursing homes and assisted living facilities they serve.

Democrats in Washington have spent the last two years celebrating the Inflation Reduction Act’s drug-pricing provisions. And, yes, lower prices and a $2,000 out-of-pocket cap make for good headlines, but beneath that victory lap sits a part of the health-care system almost no one thinks about: the pharmacies that serve nursing-home residents. Their stability determines whether millions of elderly Americans receive the medications they rely on every day.

The Biden administration appears to have set a trap for the Trump administration with a federal provision for funding specialized senior healthcare.

As we fast approach the end of the year, legislators and others are sounding the alarm bells on a Biden administration provision in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) that could spell doom for long-term care (LTC) pharmacies and the American seniors they serve.

During my years representing the rural communities of southcentral
Pennsylvania, I learned that when a system works smoothly and
efficiently, people take it for granted.

After thirty years serving the people of Ohio in state government and now volunteering with veterans and seniors in care facilities, I’ve learned that good intentions don’t always lead to good outcomes. That’s exactly what’s happening with Medicare Part D drug price negotiations.

If Congress does not pass proposed legislation to address the cost to long-term pharmacies related to negotiated drug prices, it could cost taxpayers up to $4.8 billion in increased healthcare costs over the next decade, the Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition said this week.