WEBINAR | Medicare Beneficiaries in Underserved Areas and Pharmacist Provider Status

Scott Knoer, MS, PharmD, FASHP, Executive Vice President and Chief Executive Officer, American Pharmacists Association; Snehal Doshi, PharmD, MBA, Senior Vice President, Ancillary and Support Services, Wellstar Health System; and James Stevenson, PharmD, FASHP, FFIP, Chief Clinical Officer, Omnicell.

The public health emergency caused by COVID-19 has highlighted inequities in healthcare access across many parts of our country.  For example, Medicare beneficiaries in underserved, often rural, communities are forced to travel to the doctor for basic services, such as immunizations, diabetes care, blood pressure screenings, and cholesterol monitoring. Even though local pharmacists already may be performing these serves for commercially ensured populations, there is no avenue for Medicare Part B to directly reimburse pharmacists for them.  New bipartisan legislation before Congress aims to close this gap. The bill does not expand pharmacists’ scope of practice in any state. Rather, it simply allows pharmacists to provide Medicare beneficiaries with the same level of care that they are licensed to provide to other patients.  The panelists will demonstrate why this common-sense measure would solve real problems facing providers and patients.