Pharmacist Provider-Status Legislation Returns

The Pharmacy and Medically Underserved Areas Enhancement Act, better known as the pharmacist provider status act, has been introduced in Congress in both the House of Representatives and the Senate The bill would reimburse pharmacists for Medicare Part B-covered services within their state authorized scope of practice if performed in areas recognized as being medically underserved. Paul Baldwin debates the likeliness of the bill's passage.

Association of Weight Loss With Type 2 Diabetes Remission Among Adults in Medically Underserved Areas: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Purpose: To examine the association between weight loss and type 2 diabetes remission among vulnerable populations living in medically underserved areas of the Mid-Southern United States. Design: Quantitative, retrospective cohort study. Setting: 114 ambulatory sites and 5 adults’ hospitals in the Mid-South participating in a regional diabetes registry. Participants: 9,900 adult patients with type 2 diabetes, stratified by remission status, with 1 year of baseline electronic medical record data, and 1 year of follow-up data for the 2015-2018 study period. Measures: The outcomes were diabetes remissions, categorized as any remission, partial remission, and complete remission based on the guidelines of the American Diabetes Association. The exposure was weight loss, calculated by the change in the Body Mass Index (BMI) as a proxy measure. Analysis: χ2 tests, Fisher’s exact tests, and the Mann-Whitney U-test were used to examine the differences in patient characteristics by remission status across the 3 remission categories, as appropriate. Multiple multivariable logistic regressions adjusting for confounders were performed to estimate the adjusted odds ratios (aORs) for the associations between weight loss and diabetes remission. Results: Among 9,900 patients identified, a reduction of 0.3 kg/m2 (standard deviation: 2.5) in the average BMI from the baseline to the follow-up was observed. 10.8% achieved any type of remission, with 9.8% for partial and 1.0% for complete remissions. Greater weight loss was significantly associated with an increased likelihood of any (aOR = 1.07, 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.06-1.08), partial (aOR 1.06, 95% CI, 1.04-1.07), and complete diabetes remission (aOR 1.10, 95% CI, 1.07-1.13). Conclusions: Weight loss is significantly associated with diabetes remission among patients living in medically underserved areas, but complete remission is rare.

The Importance of Pharmacy Partnerships in Effective COVID-19 Vaccine Distribution

Narrative Abstract The goal of vaccinating the majority of Americans against COVID-19 in a timely manner requires a robust federal vaccine distribution plan involving pharmacy partnerships. Previously, the 2009 Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) H1N1 Vaccine Pharmacy Initiative resulted in approximately 10% of adults who received a vaccine during the 2009 pandemic reporting they were vaccinated at a pharmacy. This proportion has already largely increased for COVID-19 vaccinations, with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) using similar channels for vaccination as existing partnerships with national pharmacy and grocery retail chains for the COVID-19 Community-Based Testing Program. It continues to prove crucial that the Biden Administration’s national COVID-19 vaccine distribution plan, including the Federal Retail Pharmacy Program, focus on ensuring equitable vaccine distribution and access in medically underserved areas and to vulnerable populations, enabling maximum uptake of COVID-19 vaccines.