Be The Voice | APhA’s President, Dr. Sandra Leal & CEO, Dr. Scott Knoer

Sandra Leal is the President of the APhA and is a longtime advocate and leader for #providerstatus, Sandra has had a tremendous impact on the profession and we are honored to have her on the Pharmacy Podcast. Sandra is committed to the theme & mission for pharmacists to "Be the Voice for Pharmacy" and she asks that you join her in her mission by speaking up and using your voices too. CONNECT w/ SANDRA  @SLealRx @BetheVoiceRx Scott Knoer, PharmD is the CEO of the APhA and is committed to changing the payment system of the strangle-hold status quo system controlled by the 3 leading PBMs which process more than 75% of all prescriptions in the U.S.  CONNECT w/ SCOTT  @ScottKnoer The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) has joined a federal lawsuit filed by the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) in January to challenge direct and indirect remuneration (DIR) fees. DIR fees have been a point of contention since they were loosely established in 2014 because they allow pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to retroactively impose these fees on pharmacies and, indirectly, on patients long after the point of sale. “HHS has acknowledged on multiple occasions that retroactive pharmacy DIR fees inflict harm on pharmacies and increase costs for their patients, but it has repeatedly neglected to address the problem,” said APhA EVP and CEO Scott J. Knoer, MS, PharmD, FASHP, in a press release. “This lawsuit puts pharmacy in the driver’s seat. We demand that HHS meet its obligations and use its authority to stop PBMs from operating without accountability.” Scott was interviewed by Pharmacy Times Alana Hippensteele & said:  Right now, obviously, doctors, PAs, nurse practitioners, and—this is no insult intended whatsoever—but audiologists and nurse midwives are also providers. Pharmacists are the second most educated with PharmD's and our bachelor's pharmacists have been working 30 years with experience, and my audiologist, I have a hearing tested—God love her—she did a great job, but she's not trained at the level pharmacists are. So it's just ludicrous that pharmacists cannot bill for the services they all went to school for. So—we'll get to this, I know you've got your questions, I'm sorry I give long answers to short questions—the problem is pharmacies are only reimbursed for product in the community setting, and 20 years ago that was okay because you got paid enough where I could talk to your mom about her diabetes. Now the PBMs have sucked so much money out of the health care system without providing any real value that all you can do is volume. That's why we've had reporter—just recently Adiel Kaplan at NBC news—talk about the challenges in chain pharmacies. I love chain pharmacies, but they tend to have busier pharmacies, people are stressed out, they're burned out, they're worried about making errors—so that was a long answer to what's this do—it allows for patients in underserved areas where—it's not everyone, but it's a good start—for pharmacists to bill for what they went to school for. For a sustainable practice model—it's not sustainable right now. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices