Pharmacy Provisions of Health Care Legislation Are Still Viable: Industry's Agenda Is Clear, but Its Future Path Is Not.

It may well be that Congress might not be able to put any of Humpty’s pieces back together again. Even if this is the case, pharmacy groups agree on at least some key areas and have turned that con sensus into legislative provisions that could come to political fruition via alternative paths, such as (1) health care reform “lite,” (2) amendments to other non–health care reform (HCR) bills, (3) freestanding legislation, or (4) separate Obama administration agency initiatives, which need no congressional consent. In the last instance, that is already happening. In October 2009, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) issued a Call Letter for 2010 that expanded the number of Medicare Part D recipients eligible for MTM services. Call Letters are documents that make wide-ranging changes to Medicare. Kristina Lunner, Vice President of Government Affairs at APhA, says: