Recap on Current Events!!!

Please visit the Montana Pharmacy Association Website for information regarding the PharmAssist program. As a reminder, the second PharmAssist CE session (6 CE credits) will be held in Billings, MT Sunday, April 29th at the Holiday Inn. Please visit www.rxmt.org to sign up for PharmAssist and learn how pharmacists can get reimbursed for managed care. In addition, please read the following response to Dr. Manasse, Executive Vice President of ASHP, by Vince Colucci, Pharm.D., BCPS, Associate Professor, The University of Montana CHPBS, President, Montana Pharmacy Association, in regards to MPA’s affiliation status with ASHP.

Good NEWS!!! Just in case you haven’t heard yet, a couple of bad bills including SB397, the clinic medical practitioner dispensing bill, and SB 521, the bill that would revise pharmacy laws to prohibit substitution of anticonvulsants without consent of both the prescriber and the patient, have been tabled. In addition, the “Medicaid Reimbursement Scare” is over for now. The 60th Legislative session is now at an end and Medicaid reimbursement will remain the same! Please give all your thanks to: Becky Deschamps, Starla Blank, Brett Stubson, Mark Meredith, and Jim Smith, for all their legislative efforts! It was a rough pharmacy session, but they pulled through for us. Thank you!!! In addition, thank you to all of you who have contributed by writing letters to the appropriate House and Senate members, and for those that have spread the word about pertinent legislative issues to protect our futures. Thank you!!!

In Federal news, please thank Senator Baucus for all his support in pharmacy legislation and protecting the pharmacy practice! In addition, please thank Congressman Rehberg for co-sponsoring HR1474, the Fair & Speedy Treatment Act. This act will push PBM’s to pay pharmacies within a 14 day interval rather than a month to three month interval. This way, pharmacies can relax on making the budget work and concentrate more on better pharmacy services and no one loses their pharmacy or their job. You will find a copy of the official letter stating Rehberg’s co-sponsoring of HR1474 on www.rxmt.org and www.grizrph.com when applicable. Please use the links on GrizRPh.com (Representative Contacts) to write or phone your representatives today to say THANK YOU!!! To read more about the current legislative issues and pharmacy topics, please visit the Montana Pharmacy Association (www.rxmt.org) or GrizRph.com (www.grizrph.com). Thank you all for your support!!!

Sincerely,

GrizRPh.com