Steve Anderson

I am writing this article on the heels of NACDS Week in New York City in the first week of December. NACDS Week in New York City is a series of NACDS and NACDS Foundation events. Over the course of just a few days, these events seem to create the right mindset for thinking in new ways about emerging health and wellness dynamics.

While NACDS and the NACDS Foundation are distinct organizations with separate missions, the individuals they bring together share a passion for improving the lives of patients. I can think of no better basis for this article than to reflect on some of the developments from the past week.

As a result, my outlook for 2020 involves lessons learned from the NACDS Foundation about the power of partnership; the need for NACDS to remain focused on pro-patient and pro-pharmacy advocacy campaigns; and opportunities for NACDS to foster health and wellness solutions through collaboration with chain and supplier members alike.

NACDS Foundation and the power of partnership

When the NACDS Foundation presented its Excellence in Patient Care Award to two incredibly deserving recipients during the NACDS Foundation Annual Dinner, the thought in my mind was this: We need more of what these amazing recipients are doing in their communities.

The awards went to Janice Pringle, founder and director of the University of Pittsburgh School of Pharmacy Program Evaluation and Research Unit (PERU), and Judy Rosser, executive director of Blair Drug and Alcohol Partnerships. They were recognized for their work on Project Lifeline — a community partnership and research program initiated by the NACDS Foundation to address substance use disorder (SUD).

Janice and Judy, their organizations, and partnering local community pharmacies, set out in October 2018 to evaluate the sustainability and feasibility of the evidence-based practice known as SBIRT (Screening, Brief Intervention and Referral to Treatment). SBIRT is a process designed to provide comprehensive care for a patient with, or at risk of developing, SUD.

In Project Lifeline, individuals with a schedule II opioid prescription are screened for opioid use disorder and SUD at the pharmacy. The results are used to provide the appropriate intervention or linkage to care. Patients are provided education and counseling, naloxone, immunizations, and HIV/hepatitis C screenings and linkage to care, as appropriate. Project Lifeline has conducted over 4,200 SUD screenings over the past year and has distributed naloxone to over 300 patients.

It is one thing to read these words on this page. It is another to actually see the people and communities who stand to benefit from the program. We showed a video that showed that and more, and I hope you will take a moment to find that video on the NACDS Foundation’s website. When you see the video, and hear Janice and Judy talk about the program — as they did on the stage at the NACDS Foundation Annual Dinner — you can feel the power of partnership, and you can just sense the difference that is being made.

In saying this, I am not simply talking positively about this NACDS Foundation Initiative. I also am holding it up as a symbol of what is to come. In fact, the NACDS Foundation is announcing that the program is expanding to Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County. The vision is to scale this program for even broader reach throughout the nation.

Advancing such partnerships to benefit patients and communities needs to remain a focus into 2020 and beyond.

NACDS’ Focus on Key Advocacy Campaigns

NACDS’ public policy agenda focuses intensely on enhancing consumers’ access to high-quality, convenient health and wellness services; confronting threats to pharmacies and to patients’ access to pharmacies; and helping to address the opioid abuse epidemic.

To that end, NACDS is waging four vigorous campaigns that will remain critical in 2020:

• The campaign to achieve relief from pharmacy direct and indirect remuneration (DIR) fees and to establish a pharmacy quality incentive payment ­program.

• The campaign to create a viable long-term pharmacy reimbursement model while addressing immediate reimbursement issues.

• The campaign to advance public policy for opioid-abuse prevention, and pharmacy’s role as part of the solution.

• The campaign to expand pharmacy’s scope of business.

In writing about the health care outlook for 2020, I want to make the strong case that readers of Chain Drug Review can be a tremendous force in helping to make NACDS’ outlook and campaigns a reality. I hope you will mark your calendar for March 10 and March 11 — the dates of NACDS RxImpact Day on Capitol Hill. This is the event at which NACDS members meet with U.S. senators and representatives. In fact, the event has grown to the point that participants collectively reach every congressional office in person during this event.

One of the key points that we make during NACDS RxImpact Day on Capitol Hill is that pharmacy’s outlook coincides with the American public’s outlook. Consider these statistics, according to a 2019 national survey commissioned by NACDS and conducted by Morning Consult:

• 75% of voters support enhancing patient access to newer pharmacy services such as vaccinations, testing and diabetes management.

• 67% of voters agree that change is needed in rules that result in below-cost or unpredictable reimbursement from payers to pharmacies.

• 86% of voters support pharmacists using their expertise to identify public policy solutions to lower patients’ costs.

• 70% of voters support leveraging pharmacies’ role to help solve issues related to opioid abuse.

This shared outlook among consumers and the pharmacies that serve them motivates NACDS’ work in the public policy arena.

NACDS’ Health and Wellness Focus through Collaboration

Collaboration among retailers and suppliers stands as a hallmark of NACDS. This collaboration is on display and in action during NACDS Week in New York City, and it serves as an important indicator of the 2020 outlook for health and wellness.

Two of the formal meetings during NACDS Week in New York City that help to drive this collaboration are the Leadership Roundtable and the meeting of the NACDS Retail Advisory Board. The Leadership Roundtable includes the NACDS chain member representatives who serve on the NACDS board of directors, as well as representatives from NACDS associate, or supplier, members who are most engaged with NACDS. The NACDS Retail Advisory Board includes NACDS associate and chain members who make recommendations to the NACDS board of directors on front-end issues.

All this is to say the meeting rooms at NACDS Week in New York City served as laboratories of thought and discussion on issues including digital health and wellness platforms; sophisticated insights regarding consumer trends related to health and wellness; the economic landscape; and much more.

The discussions provided excellent context for additional dialogue throughout the rest of NACDS Week in New York City, and they are certain to figure significantly into ongoing collaboration between companies into 2020 and beyond.

We look forward to your engagement in NACDS’ annual series of meetings and conferences, where significant chapters of the outlook for 2020 will be written.

Steven Anderson is the president, CEO at National Association of Chain Drug Stores.