October 23: Pharmacist Legislative Day Recap
The Ohio Pharmacists Association, the Ohio Society of Health-System Pharmacists and several of Ohio’s prominent pharmacy buying groups have joined together for this special advocacy day to inform you of crucial legislation impacting pharmacy practice. Pharmacist Legislative Day is designed to develop open dialogue between pharmacists and lawmakers.
Pharmacists and student pharmacists from all over the state came to the Statehouse to meet with their legislators at the 2019 Legislative Day. The main topics on slate: PBM reform, provider status, access to care, Medicaid, and more.
One of the main issues discussed centered around Medicaid provider IDs for pharmacists as pharmacist provider status implementation moves forward. OPA has been in discussions with MCOs and is working on potential pharmacy pilot programs. 
The Department of Medicaid is developing a process to assign provider IDs to pharmacists. However, the Department indicates that the process could take 12 months. The pharmacists in attendance were directed in their one-on-one meetings with legislators to encourage the Department of Medicaid to provide pharmacists provider IDs immediately.
The pharmacists spent a few hours meeting with their legislators in the Statehouse and Riffe building. To conclude the day, OPA hosted a Political Action Committee (PAC) reception and invited everyone in the Ohio Legislature to attend, as well as several state officials. The turnout was incredible, as we hosted more that 30 Representative and Senators, as well as Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost and State Auditor Kevin Faber.
Thank you to our sponsors:
“There is nothing more powerful than for pharmacists to have face-to-face meetings with legislators and their aides.” ~ Ernest Boyd
American Pharmacy Cooperative, Inc. (APCI)