SAN DIEGO – State and other government officials lack awareness of the true value that community pharmacy brings, said Warren Bryant, chairman, president and chief executive officer, Longs Drug Stores, Walnut Creek, Calif., and current member chair of the National Association of Chain Drug Stores, Alexandria, Va. Bryant spoke during the opening business session of the group’s Pharmacy & Technology Conference here on Sunday. For example, in California, a court recently blocked cuts in pharmacy reimbursement for Medi-Cal, the state’s Medicaid program. “I understand the difficulty of balancing state budgets in a tough economy. But that doesn’t change the fact that, in pushing for these cuts, state lawmakers ignored all the evidence out there about the value of pharmacy services and the importance of these services for the state’s neediest patients. What this kind of action misses is that pharmacy care actually saves money over the long term,” Bryant said. To address this, NACDS is involved in several efforts to communicate the value of pharmacy, including the Coalition for Community Pharmacy Action, a coalition of chain and independent drug stores. “Our campaign starts with the pharmacist. We need to do a better job of recruit, educating and training future pharmacists to meet the growing demands for pharmacy services in a new era in healthcare,” he said.
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