Value Drug Company was instrumental in assisting with the passage of SB 201– Access to Community Pharmacy Services in Pennsylvania.

The bill was passed unanimously by the Senate and House of representatives in October and was signed by governor Corbett on November 1st, 2012. The law will go into effect March 1, 2013.

 The Pennsylvania law will allow patients to have a choice as to which pharmacy they use, and not be forced into mandatory mail order and victimized by their health insurance companies.

 Pharmacists are one of the most trusted healthcare providers, easily accessible to patients. Community pharmacists play a critical role in keeping their patients healthy and avoiding catastrophic drug-drug interactions and inappropriate medication use. Mail order pharmacy is a fill and bill mill providing no direct patient care. What the mail order pharmacies excel at is customer-disservice and promoting the non-adherence of patients because invariably their medications never arrive on time. They do not lower healthcare costs.

These practices are dire in patients, especially specialty patients with diseases such as Hepatitis C, multiple sclerosis and cancer to name a few. Now Anthem Blue Cross wants to mandate that their HIV members use Curascript, Express Scripts mail order pharmacy. This will have dire consequences in managing drug therapy for HIV patients, where HIV Specialist Pharmacists in the Community are critical in drug therapy management keeping HIV patients alive and healthy.

You can let Anthem Blue Cross know how you feel by signing the petition to stop Compromising the Care of HIV Patients