President's Perspective

As we welcome the new year, I would like to take a moment to reflect on the past year and express my gratitude for your unwavering support and dedication to our profession. We saw momentum as pharmacists were celebrated for the impact we have on the health of our communities. Through the highs and the lows, our profession has continued to stand tall, advocating and advancing the pharmacy profession to improve the health of Kentuckians. This past fall, we gathered to “Wager to Thrive” at our very successful fall conference, setting our legislative priorities and taking steps toward reaching our goals.

We’ve seen this momentum carry us into 2024, as we jumped right into the Legislative Session with the General Assembly convening on January 2. Our committees have been actively meeting and they, along with our KPhA staff, have been working tirelessly behind the scenes to ensure that we are progressing towards our goals and positioned to thrive.

Our priority is comprehensive PBM reform, immunizations down to age three pursuant to prescriber-approved protocols,

and Medicaid payment parity. 

With PBM reform, we continue to see more movement on the federal and state levels. We’ve seen legislation introduced with HB 274 to amend current Kentucky law to lower the age at which a Kentucky licensed pharmacist can provide an immunization under protocol.

There is building support from various stakeholders, and we hear stories from others besides pharmacists. We must continue this momentum: continue to cultivate relationships; continue to provide education; and, continue to work with legislators to tell our stories. It brings me joy to see that we are not just engaging with the same colleagues but new ones as well; we are engaging our communities and other stakeholders across Kentucky to get to the heart of these issues. While we continue to work diligently for practice advancement in our profession, we recognize that unreasonable reimbursement and lack of payment for pharmacist-delivered services significantly hinder our ability to advance as quickly as we would like. These factors contribute to the continued burnout that our colleagues are facing, and we have made addressing these issues a top legislative priority. KPhA continues our work to address these issues and support our pharmacists, technicians and student pharmacists. 

Momentum is defined as “the quantity of motion of a moving body, measured as a product of its mass and velocity.” To build upon our momentum, while also overcoming our obstacles, we need every one of us to work together, growing our mass while moving in the same direction. Your voice is vital, and we need ALL Voices for the profession to thrive! We will gather again as a unified pharmacy front on Thursday, February 22, 2024 for Pharmacy Day at the Capitol, using our collective voice to articulate the value of our profession.

I remain encouraged by our progress thus far and have confidence that we will continue to thrive. The coming months will be a critical time for us. While we have momentum, we cannot slow down. Our goal is not to simply finish the race, our goal is to win! KPhA will continue to support a unified pharmacy profession as we advocate to move all of pharmacy forward.