Advocating for Pharmacy: What Can You Do?

In this political climate and era of highly debated healthcare, it is more important than ever to be involved in advocacy for the profession. When the Medicare Modernization Act (MMA) passed in 2003 and subsequently the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) in 2010, pharmacists saw an opportunity to gain provider status. However, the profession encountered barriers in the area of reimbursement. Thus, it is important that pharmacists have a presence when decisions are being made about the profession. A proven and successful avenue to pursue this is advocacy. Advocacy is defined as the act or process of supporting a cause or proposal [1]. Although political advocacy through a presence at the local state capitol or Washington, D.C. tends to be the type of advocacy that immediately comes to mind, other methods for promoting the profession can occur in the form of promotion in the community with patients and other practitioners or in an academic setting to future professionals.