Pharmacists ask administration to retain COVID-19 emergency powers

Photo: Tom Werner/Getty Images

A major pharmacy group has sent a letter to the White House urging the administration to retain COVID-19 emergency provisions under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness (PREP) Act for a couple more years.

In the letter, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), led by president and CEO Steven C. Anderson, said the provisions should remain in place until at least October 2024, as the act provides liability protections to pharmacists and technicians.

"It would be deeply harmful to our nation's public health to hastily unravel the flexibilities that enable pharmacies to provide key services patients have come to expect and need," according to the letter.

Anderson pointed to some of the efforts pharmacy teams have made in expanding access to COVID-19 testing and vaccinations, overseeing about 266 million coronavirus shots to date. NACDS said that about two of every three vaccine doses are being provided at a pharmacy, and more than 40% of those vaccinated at a pharmacy are from racial and ethnic minority groups.

In addition, more than 40% of children ages 5 to 11 who have been vaccinated for COVID-19 did so at a pharmacy, according to NACDS.

In addition to keeping pharmacy personnel pandemic flexibilities in place at least through the next two years, the pharmacy group is pressing the White House to release a detailed plan – "grounded in reality" – by which the administration will cover the costs of vaccinating, testing and providing therapeutics to uninsured Americans. 

"This has not been the case since funding for the uninsured ended for testing and therapeutics in late March 2022, and for vaccination administration in early April 2022," the group wrote.

NACDS also wants to establish a reliable Medicare reimbursement pathway for pharmacy care services including vaccinations, testing and therapeutics for COVID-19, flu and other illnesses – the current lack of which, the group said, is reducing access to therapeutics.

The group also said it's essential "to provide a robust public education effort to ensure that patients understand how they will get their COVID-19 boosters – and other care – moving forward."

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

Physicians have a different take on the matter, as exemplified by a letter sent to the White House last week by the American Academy of Family Physicians, which maintained that primary care physicians should not have to determine whether patients received their vaccines from a community provider.

AAFP also said primary care physicians should be notified when patients are prescribed monoclonal antibody treatments for COVID-19 so that follow-up care can be appropriate. 

"As we enter the next phase of the COVID-19 vaccination process, which will include new vaccine mandates, recommended boosters for some patients, and COVID-19 vaccines for children under 12, additional actions are needed to support primary care practices," the letter read. "Primary care physicians are well-positioned to provide extensive counseling to vaccine-hesitant patients, help ensure adults receive recommended booster shots, and provide children with COVID-19 vaccines once they are authorized."

The physician group floated several of its own recommendations – including ensuring that all primary care physicians have ready access to vaccine supplies, shifting the focus slightly from mass vaccination sites and retail pharmacies.

AAFP encouraged the White House to streamline registration, reporting and other administrative requirements for primary care physicians administering the vaccine in their practices; work with states and localities to engage with practices in their vaccination efforts; and provide support for physicians conducting outreach to vaccine-hesitant patients, in part by requiring Medicare and Medicaid to pay for vaccine counseling when it's performed separately from vaccine administration.

The group also wants the administration to improve information sharing between primary care, retail pharmacies and other community COVID-29 vaccine and treatment providers.

"Increasing reliance on pharmacists and other providers outside of patients' medical homes squanders the value of physician-patient relationships and leads to care fragmentation," AAFP wrote.

THE LARGER TREND

The PREP Act authorizes the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services to issue a PREP Act declaration, which provides immunity from liability – excluding willful misconduct – from claims determined to be a present or credible risk for a future public health emergency, according to HHS.

PREP Act declarations are not exclusive to COVID-19. There currently exists a declaration for smallpox and other orthopox viruses.
 

Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: jeff.lagasse@himssmedia.com