Careers in Retail Pharmacy
Medicare, Medicaid and mail:
CONTINUED FROM PAGE 3 the initial confusion and chaos surrounding the launch of Part D has dissipated, and there’s no disputing that the program has brought new patients and new business to community pharmacy. It’s also elevated the role and visibility of pharmacists as medication and disease-man-agement counselors to many senior citizens.
To their credit, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has responded to pharmacy’s concerns over Part D’s rocky launch 1 and rapid expansion. CMS administrator Mark McClellan and his boss, Health and Human Ser- 2 vices secretary Michael Leavitt, have stumped repeatedly for the program 3 before pharmacy and seniors’ groups, and McClellan’s Senior Advisor, Office 4 of the Administrator Larry Kocut, former NACDS general counsel, has become the de facto liaison between 5 the government and community pharmacy.
More important, CMS 6 has added resources to ease patient confusion and boost enrollments and promises to hold the 7 dozens of competing plans in each region to higher standards of service and 8 accountability in 2007. But the program remains flawed. CMS has promised 9 to fix the system, and already has eliminated one key source of confusion by 10 stopping the practice of co-branding, in which some pharmacy chains were
putting their logos on Part D membership cards, leading some enrollees to believe that was the only place they could get their prescriptions filled. But it will take an act of Congress and the president’s signature to change some of the more controversial elements of the Medicare program, including a provision that pre-
vents the government from negotiating directly with drug manufacturers for volume discounts.
That issue, in particular, is certain to spur more controversy as the program enters its second year. Some law makers are calling for an overhaul that would allow Medicare to negotiate prices with drug makers and assume more
Top 10 retail pharmacy chains
Rank Company
% change
$42,500
39%
68%
27,350†
15
42,680
14
64
11,036
21
209,900††
9
5
10,900
1
17,300
3
63
5,500
NA
8,200
NA
67
5,450
11
60,600
7
9
44,000 315
8
3,100
11
38,400
7
8
2,520
0
2,600
0
97
– 8
49,200^
–4
4
S
S
C SG
4
Fall 2006
References:
Archives