Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Legislative season is upon us.


Legislative season is upon us.  This week we attended many more meetings with our legislators representing our MPhA members throughout the state.  Since the budget was released this week, it was very focused on the deficit and other fiscal concerns.  Although the legislators are extremely supportive of the role of the pharmacist in improving health care, the one question that is always brought up with regards to all current pharmacy issues is “will this cost us anything?”  It is always refreshing to inform them that pharmacists have actually been proven to provide savings through services provided.
I was also able to attend the MTM Academy Meeting this week.  As a new practitioner in the MTM community, it was invigorating to see practitioners working together through their association to further provide resources and opportunities for education and experience regarding MTM through MPhA.  I realize the role professional association membership plays in professional development, but it was still great to see the members themselves working to ensure the needs of the entire membership are being met. 

Monday, February 21, 2011

Signing Out


Just wrapping up my last week here at MPhA, looking back I have had quite an eventful five weeks.  In the last five weeks I have organized two events, MidWinter and Legislative Day, with the MPhA staff.  I have called all of the representatives (27) and senators (13) on the Health and Human Services Committees.  We have successfully scheduled meetings with all but 5 legislatores so far and have gone to 28 meetings.  I have been able to see how an idea can make its way to the capitol by way of a bill and hopefully make its way into legislation to lead to positive changes in our profession.  By far the legislative session has been the biggest part of this rotation which has really opened my eyes to what goes into making decisions about laws.  As I have said every week…take a few minutes to reach out to your legislators and let them know you are in their district, it does not take much but could really help you and the profession.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

A new face at MPhA


Yet another new face with MPhA!  I’m Alison Knutson, a recent graduate of the University of Minnesota College of Pharmacy.  I am now completing the Pharmaceutical Care Leadership Residency at the U of M.  A large component of this program focuses on impacting change within the profession, and I truly believe the most effective way to effect change is through professional advocacy.  I have the opportunity to spend 5 weeks with MPhA, meeting with legislators, reviewing proposed legislation, discussing and debating the constantly changing hot topics.  And of course (this year in particular), debating the financial aspect of all decisions made at the state level.  It has been easy to discuss pharmacy from the financial perspective, because pharmacy has been shown to decrease overall healthcare cost.  In my short one week, we have met with newly elected and re-elected legislators with a broad spectrum of backgrounds (the main differentiation being healthcare vs. non-healthcare background).  I’m looking forward to when more legislation is introduced, and the continuing discussions to follow! 

A Busy Week at the Capitol


This week was filled with meetings at the Capitol.  We had 11 meetings with Senators and Representatives.  Our typical conversations include letting the legislators know what is going on in pharmacy and educating on the issues that they might be seeing presented before this legislative session is over.  As talked about in previous blogs we are working on third party audits and trying to get more people access to medication therapy management.  Our bill should be jacketed late this week or early next then we can introduce it and hear some discussion on it in the house and senate.

I have been telling everyone I know that I am meeting so many Senators and Representatives but not the Governor.  This was all changed this Wednesday.  As Matt and I were waiting by the elevators in the State Office Building and talking about our meeting for the afternoon, in walked the Governor.  I can now say that I have shook hands with Governor Mark Dayton!

I also had a meeting with my district’s senate member, Senator Michelle Benson.  It was a good meeting and we talked about the schooling I’m getting to become a pharmacist as well as what this years legislative issues will mean to the future of pharmacy.  As I say every week, if you have not yet had the opportunity to meet with your legislator there is still time to make an appointment, call, email or write them and I encourage you to do so. 

Pharmacy Legislative Day

On February 2nd, 2011 we hosted our Pharmacy Legislative Day.  The day started at the University Club in St. Paul with speakers Tim, Julie Johnson, Cody Wiberg and Matt Lemke.  The morning session briefly discussed our main concerns in this legislative session and talked briefly on our top seven then had some round table discussions for everyone to get more acquainted with the topics from specialists in the field.  The priority items in this legislative session are: the third party audit bill, medication therapy management expansion, pharmaceutical waste, MERC funding, medicinal marijuana, the health care home model, and electronic prescribing.  You can find copies of most of these leave-behinds on the MPhA website for future legislative vistis.

Following the morning session everyone was given the opportunity to meet with their senator or representative at the Capitol.  The MPhA office attempted to get meetings set up ahead of time for the constituents and this resulted in getting 49 meetings set up for 35 constituents.  It was reported that those that had meetings really enjoyed the opportunity to talk about pharmacy issues and let their legislature know that they have a resource in their community.

To conclude the evening we returned to the University Club to sit down and talk with a few senators and representatives about some of our current pharmacy issues.  We were joined by:

Representative Jim Abeler from district 48B (Anoka, MN); he is the chair of the Health & Human Services Finance committee and also is on the Health & Human Services Reform and Ways & Means committees.

Representative Steve Gottwalt from district 15A (St. Cloud); he is the chair of the Health & Human Services Reform committee and sits on the Health & Human Services Reform and Taxes committees.

Representative Erin Murphy from district 64A (St. Paul); she is on the Health & Human Services Finance and Reform committees as well as the Rules and Legislative Administration committee.

Senator Linda Berglin from district 61 (Minneapolis; she is on the Health & Human Services, Capitol Investment, Finance, and Rules and Administration committees.

Senator David Hann from district 42 (Eden Prairie); he is on the Health & Human Services, Education and Finance committees.

A special thanks goes out to all of them for their time and interest in our profession.

We had a great turn out at this year’s Pharmacy Legislative Day but making a difference takes more than one day.  I encourage everyone to stay in touch with your legislators especially when new information comes available.  For those that did not have the opportunity or were unable to make it to meetings with your legislators I encourage you to make an appointment, write a letter or email, or call your legislators to let them know that you are their community resource and are available to help them if any questions about pharmacy come up. 

Friday, February 4, 2011

Week 2


Week two here at MPhA has proven to be a very busy week.  We are trying to get ready for Pharmacy Legislative Day coming up on February 2nd.  We are also making and attending meetings with the representatives and senators on the health and human services committee.  This week we met with Representatives Jim Abeler and Nora Slawick as well as Senator Sean Nienow.  I found that bringing a constituent is a very important thing for us.  It helps to give the representative or senator a resource in their community that they can go to with questions.  After making all these appointments I now can say that it is really important to let your representatives and senators know that you are available to clear any confusing pharmacy issues up and really encourage everyone to call, email, write or visit your legislatures.

Thursday, February 3, 2011

A week with Ewald


This has been quite an informative week for me. While Julie was gone I was taken in by the staff at MPhA and helped them get everything together for this weekend’s Mid-Winter Conference (Enhancing Oncology Patient Care). There are so many things that go into making this event. It has been great getting to help with a project that is so relevant to pharmacist professional development.

I also joined Matt Lemke at the state capital for a tour and to get my bearings before getting into this years legislative session. I now know the key functions that go into making a new bill. It just so happened that yesterday (1/20/11), just before my first solo trip to the capital, Governor Dayton released news about the state’s GAMC. The date has been moved up from October to March of this year and getting eligible Minnesotans access to Medicaid sooner. I sat in on the afternoon meeting that listened to testimony from the people that will be involved with seeing over this project. This accelerated enrollment will be exciting to watch during my time with MPhA and at the capital.