Major Congressional Victory for Pharmacy: Congress
Overrides President's Veto - H.R. 6331 Enacted Into Law NEW
Following the expected veto by President Bush, Congress
acted quickly on Tuesday, July 15, 2008 in overturning the President's action by
overwhelming support in both the House and Senate for the passage of H.R.6331 -
the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008.
After a
brief debate on the House floor, 383 Representatives voted in favor of
overriding the veto with only 41 in opposition at 4:48pm. Not wasting anytime,
the Senate took up the bill shortly after final passage in the House. At 5:58pm,
the Senate voted 70-26 in favor of overriding the President's veto. With this
action, H.R.6331 now becomes law. This marks only the 4th time that Congress has
overridden a veto by President Bush.
The following are some highlights of
H.R.6331:
Clean claims submitted electronically to Part D and MA-PD plans must be
paid within 14 days (penalties enforced on plans if not paid within 14
days).
Drug prices for Part D and MA-PD plans must be updated at least once
every 7 days (beginning Jan 1, 2009).
Implementation of Round 1 of DMEPOS Competitive Bidding program delayed
until 2009 (Round 2 - which includes Richmond and Tidewater MSA - is delayed
until 2011).
Delay in Average Manufacturer Price (AMP) Medicaid Reimbursement until
October 1, 2009. The Secretary of HHS shall not, prior to Oct 1, 2009, finalize,
implement, enforce, or otherwise take any action in imposing AMP. In addition,
the bill also postpones the public posting of AMP data until the 2009
deadline.
For
those that contacted Virginia's Senators and Representatives concerning
H.R.6331, we ask that you follow up and thank them for their support. This bill
would not have passed nor overridden the veto without your calls for
support!
Pharmacists and Technicians Are Encouraged To Share Their Experiences
with Electronic Prescribing on New NASPA/Surescripts Online CQI
Portal
The National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA) and
Surescripts have announced a collaborative effort to gather direct input from
practicing community pharmacists and technicians about the experiences that they
have had with electronic prescriptions. This initiative, which compliments the
patient safety focus of NASPA’s ongoing Pharmacy Quality Commitment program, is
designed to allow the two organizations to gather suggestions for improvement as
well as detailed, actionable, non-PHI data about issues that may have been
encountered with electronic prescriptions so that said issues can be traced,
analyzed, and if appropriate, remediated.
VPhA is a member of NASPA and
is supporting this PEER Portal initiative and encourages pharmacist and
technician members to fill out the brief questionnaire on the portal whenever
they have suggestions for improvement to, or constructive criticisms about,
e-prescribing processes that they have encountered. Additional details about
this initiative are available on the portal itself, which can be viewed by going
to http://www.pqc.net/eprescribe. Pharmacists and technicians
having questions about the PEER Portal can feel free to contact either Tara
Modisett of NASPA-CQI at (804) 285-4431 (tara@naspa.us) or Ajit Dhavle of Surescripts at
(703) 921-2149 (ajit.dhavle@surescripts.com).
Robert G Wampler/Daniel A Herbert Memorial Scholarship - Deadline
Extended to August 15, 2008 UPDATED
Do you
know of a pharmacy technician employed within the Richmond Pharmacists
Association (RPhA) local association boundaries who is entering their first or
second year of pharmacy school?
The Robert G Wampler/Daniel
A Herbert Memorial Scholarship is a $1000 scholarship awarded to those
individuals as described above. If you know of a worthy recipient that you would
like to nominate, additional information and application materials can be
provided by contacting Tana Kaefer, RPhA Scholarship Committee Chair at
804-285-8055 x119.
Nominations for the 2007-08 Scholarship are due by
August 15, 2008.
