Long-Term Care Pharmacies Launch “Save Senior Rx Care” Campaign to Protect Senior Access to Life-Saving Medications and Services
24 Julio 2024 - 8:01AM
Business Wire
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.
Led by the Senior Care Pharmacy Coalition (SCPC), the
leading national voice for the LTC pharmacy community, Save Senior
Rx Care will deploy a national advocacy and advertising campaign
urging Congress to establish a sustainable payment model for LTC
pharmacies by January 2026, when the first round of the Inflation
Reduction Act’s (IRA) negotiated Medicare drug prices take effect.
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outdated pharmacy payment model threaten the future of LTC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.
“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.”
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American Rescue Plan (ARP) and the IRA, coupled with an outdated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. And 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.
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.
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