ASHP Treasurer Attends White House Forum in Des Moines

3/23/2009

ASHP Treasurer Paul Abramowitz, Pharm.D., FASHP, was a participant in yesterday’s White House-sponsored health care forum in Des Moines, Iowa.

The regional health care forums are being held to discuss strategies that should be included in health-care reform proposals. Tom Temple, Executive Vice President and CEO of the Iowa Pharmacy Association, as well as several other pharmacists, also attended the forum.

All members are encouraged to visit HealthReform.gov and provide your ideas, thoughts, and questions for the upcoming forums. Input submitted to the forums should address:

• Patient access to medications and pharmacists services, 
• The importance of creating a new reimbursement model that includes coverage for pharmacists’ medication-related patient care services, and 
• Funding programs that will make an investment in education and training for pharmacists.

ASHP is partnering with state affiliates in North Carolina and California to ensure that pharmacists are active participants in upcoming forums in those states.

The Society has developed a set of principles that it believes should be included in any proposal for health-care reform, and is educating congressional leaders and staff on the ways pharmacists’ medication expertise can benefit patients.

For more information about these issues contact ASHP’s Government Affairs staff at gad@ashp.org.

Click here to read ASHP’s Principles for Health Care Reform.