Granting provider status could improve health outcomes

The mounting shortage of primary care physicians across the United States and the growing recognition that patients’ health care often is best delivered by a team of professionals working together are fueling a nationwide movement to give more pharmacists provider status.

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“As the healthcare system undergoes a major transformation in both finance and the delivery of services, states are focusing on improved quality and health outcomes,” National Governors Association executive director Dan Crippen said earlier this year when the group released “The Expanding Role of Pharmacists in a Transformed Health Care System,” a white paper suggesting ways states can make pharmacists a more integral part of the country’s healthcare delivery system.



Because medication management plays a central role in treating illness, the report stresses that making pharmacists part of chronic care delivery teams could go a long way to improving outcomes and reducing costs.



According to the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations, as of last September, 37 states grant pharmacists some degree of provider status. Thirty of these states provide payment to pharmacists for their services, with 17 covering services provided to Medicare patients and nine paying for Medicare medication therapy management. In addition, a handful of state-run Medicaid programs cover the cost of pharmacists’ services.



Pharmacy advocates say that lawmakers in Nebraska and North Dakota — two of the states that do not currently recognize pharmacists as providers — are considering legislation to give them this designation, while several other states are looking at extending pharmacists’ scope or allowing them to be more involved in patient care through collaborative practice agreements.



“The amount of patients having difficulty accessing health care has increased,” American Pharmacists Association SVP of pharmacy practice and government affairs Stacie Maass said. “It has created opportunities for other healthcare providers, and we think pharmacists are the perfect group to do this.”



“Pharmacists can help with many of the known problems in the current healthcare system,” she said. “When pharmacists are involved access is increased, quality is improved and costs are reduced.”