It's hard to believe that a full year has already passed since the huge outrage created in the pharmacy community over the comments made by the CEO of Medco (now assimilated into Express Scripts) that many pharmacists took as an insult to the profession. Whatever came of that?
If I remember correctly, it seemed to me that most of the action from the profession as a whole was to rant about it though the various forms of media, and oh yeah, perhaps circulate a petition in order to show him who was boss, or to threaten a hunger strike to affect some serious change on his part.
It doesn't seem that any pharmacists' efforts were very successful. If only pharmacists realized that their powers originate from their feet (en masse), not from their mouths or their fingertips.
But, there were also some younger superhero pharmacists calling for even more action against the evil and greedy corporate forces interfering with our profession. How did they do?
Here's video of a few of them confronting that CEO, trying to get him to change his ways, and finally coming to realization that the mandate of corporate CEOs seems to be that all superheroes must die.
But you do agree that it's vital to our profession that all pharmacists sign this recent petition to the White House to beg them to recognize pharmacists as healthcare providers under the Social Security Act?
ReplyDeleteAlthough this is the second petition for official recognition, you must admit that not being recognized as healthcare providers, just as important as dieticians and social workers, wasn't intentional, but just a simple oversight by the bureaucrats, right?
For Pete's sake, we even had Bill Clinton give a speech at the ASHP mid-year! So, with enough signatures, they have to recognize our worth and allow us to individually bill for our services.
I think you are confusing us with Wall Street bankers.
ReplyDeleteNot that I'm saying that they shouldn't sign the petition, it's just that they won't. There are approximately 270,000 pharmacists in the United States. If even 27,000 pharmacists sign that petition, that only represents 10% of the profession.. a paltry amount.
And that translates back to what I've always said - that we cannot work together as a representative whole. We are the epitome of the phrase, "divide and conquer". And that's just how the corporate leaders view us, and treat us.
You're right Jason. Most pharmacists couldn't work together to save their own lives, never mind their own profession. Many are too busy competing with each other and pettily trying to screw their own colleagues to spend time thinking about the big picture.
ReplyDeleteHard to beat the PBMs when they have Uncle Sam with a flamethrower on their side.
ReplyDeleteNot to be nitpicking anon, but if university leaders don't encourage teamwork, what can you expect?
ReplyDeleteThat 270,000 number doesn't include all of the current pharmacy students and COP staff and faculty. It's more like >300,000 who "should" be signing that petition.
ReplyDeleteWell, the petition has reached it's deadline for pharmacists and their supporters to ask Uncle Sam to recognize our abilities and grant us provider status.
ReplyDeleteSo, how many people signed the petition?
Only 35,197. Now it's just a "wait-and-see" how the Government responds to that number.
Don't you know that the profession would flourish if we just relied on our faith in God and the Right Wing politicians to take care of pharmacists? If pharmacists really wanted the Government to take them seriously with this petition, they would have created a tremendous amount of different bogus accounts to make it "seem" like more of them stick together.
ReplyDeleteThat flamethrower carries a lot of power.
ReplyDeletePharmacist Karl Schumann, who was vice president of pharmaceutical contracting for Medco from December 1999 to January 2003, had alleged that AstraZeneca entered into sham contracts with Medco to induce it to purchase and dispense to government plan patients its brand-name drugs, rather than their generic equivalents, in violation of anti-kickback laws, causing false reports and false claims for reimbursement of those drugs to be submitted to government plans.
Source: Judge dismisses qui tam action against AstraZeneca
What you fail to understand, Jason, is that there's a new breed of young pharmacy students just entering the profession, who are better trained in the skills needed to deal with these kind of opponents.
ReplyDeleteI see what you mean Manti. I hope you guys win the battle.
ReplyDeleteThat's was my online girlfriend's video link, you can guess why she closed her account. Here's another video of those better trained pharmacy students.
ReplyDeleteLOL! I love Hit Girl.
ReplyDelete