S. 867 Medicare Prescription Drug Program Integrity and Transparency Act

This is bipartisan legislation recently introduced in the United States Senate. This legislation provides uniform, common-sense audit standards for pharmacies, but also has crucial benefits to taxpayers, patients, and local communities. Independent community pharmacists are healthcare professionals working closely with patients to educate them on adherence and proper use of medication, looking for adverse reactions in a patient’s medication regimen, and are the most accessible healthcare professionals in their communities. This legislation would:

• Keep Pharmacy audits focused on their intended purpose of uncovering cases of fraud and abuse.

• Where cases of abuse are found, and payment legitimately recouped, those monies would have to be passed back to Medicare and the taxpayer, rather than being pocketed by middlemen

• Protects patient personal data from being passed on, unless the patient has specifically elected to allow it

Additionally, by setting uniform audit standards, money remains in the community. Studies show 68 cents of every dollar spent at a local small business remains in the community through employment opportunities and tax revenue. Unjust audit recoupments remove money from the community.

Urge your legislators to do right by patients, taxpayers, and small businesses and support this bipartisan legislation.

My Preferred Pharmacy

My Health, My Pharmacy, My Choice!
My pharmacy has helped me manage my medications for years, but they were not allowed to be part of the preferred network for my Medicare prescription drug plan! Why??

Medicare D was created to give seniors many choices from which to choose a prescription drug plan and all of the plans are required to provide a broad network of pharmacies so that seniors will have access to a pharmacy nearby. However, many plans have developed what they call "preferred networks." These preferred networks are a smaller sub-group of the larger network that will allow seniors to have their prescriptions filled at a lower cost. The problem with these preferred networks is that the plan chooses which pharmacies may or may not be a part of the network.

If your pharmacy is not part of the preferred network for your plan, meaning you have to pay a higher co-pay to have them fill your prescriptions, it is likely NOT because your pharmacy refused to participate in the lower cost network. It is most likely because your plan REFUSED to allow your pharmacy into the preferred network.

Prescription drug plans should not be allowed to determine who may or may not participate in a program that is funded by YOUR tax dollars! Participation should be open to any pharmacy willing to accept the terms of the plan.

If you agree, please click on "Take Action" and send letters to Congress telling them to make preferred networks for Medicare prescription drug plans open to any pharmacy willing to accept the terms of the network!