Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition Launches “Save Senior Rx Care” to Protect Senior Access to Life-Saving Medications and Services

DATE: July 24, 2024

Washington, D.C. (July 24, 2024) — Led by the Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition (SCPC), America’s long-term care (LTC) pharmacies are launching Save Senior Rx Care, a new campaign urging Congress to protect access to life-saving medications and services for the millions of Americans who need long-term care. The campaign will raise awareness of the unintended but potentially devastating consequences of new drug pricing policies on LTC pharmacies and the vulnerable patients they serve.

“LTC pharmacies play a unique role in caring for millions of vulnerable patients who require long-term care to address multiple chronic health conditions, impairments to daily living, and who are prescribed an average of 13 different medications,” said Alan Rosenbloom, President and CEO of SCPC. “And while we support lowering drug prices for all consumers, doing so shouldn’t inadvertently limit millions of seniors’ access to essential and legally required pharmacy services.”

SCPC also released a white paper today detailing how recent Medicare drug pricing policy changes, harmful PBM actions, and an outdated pharmacy payment model threaten the future of LTC pharmacies and thus access to care for the millions of seniors they serve.  

Nursing homes and other long-term care facilities across the country depend on roughly 1,200 LTC pharmacies to fill hundreds of millions of prescriptions and provide essential pharmacy services to their residents.  But new drug pricing policies included in the American Rescue Plan (ARP) and the IRA, coupled with an outdated reimbursement model, render it nearly impossible for many LTC pharmacies to survive. Unless Congress addresses these problems, many LTC pharmacies will be forced to close in 2026, leaving millions of seniors without access to specialized pharmacy care.

“The LTC pharmacy payment model is flawed because PBM administered Medicare Part D plans require our pharmacies to subsidize inadequate payments for essential services with revenues from expensive brand name drugs,” added Rosenbloom. “Now that Congress has addressed high drug prices in Medicare, they must also address the impact these lower prices will have on LTC pharmacies whose patients rely heavily on insulin and inhalers – subject to significantly lower prices due to the ARP – and eight of the first 10 drugs subject to the IRA’s negotiated Medicare prices in 2026. Left unresolved, these new policies will make it nearly impossible for many LTC pharmacies to continue serving patients, and the situation will only get worse as more brand-name drugs are subject to price negotiations each year.”

As part of SCPC’s Annual Summit in Washington, D.C. this week, LTC pharmacies from across the country are meeting with members of Congress to advocate for a sustainable Part D funding model for LTC pharmacies.

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Save Senior Rx Care is an advocacy campaign led by the Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition (SCPC) that is dedicated to the creation of a sustainable Medicare Part D funding model for the LTC pharmacies that provide essential, government required pharmacy services to millions of vulnerable patients in long-term care settings. Learn more at www.SaveSeniorRx.org.