A simple action Congress should take to expand America’s seniors’ health care options

Despite the headlines about hyper-partisanship, we both know we can find common ground to ensure Medicare adequately meets the health and wellness care needs of seniors well into the future. To do this, we must focus on commonsense policy changes to expand and maintain seniors’ access to critical tools, such as pharmacist-administered vaccines.

Pharmacists are a consistent force of good in the communities they serve. They are accessible for, and trusted by seniors, especially where gaps in primary care often exist. During the COVID-19 pandemic, local pharmacists proved distinctly nimble at responding to infectious disease threats, fully capable to test and vaccine those in need, and provided not just care, but confidence and comfort to countless older Americans in a most difficult time. This is why we must preserve access to pharmacists’ services for Medicare beneficiaries, and why we have partnered on legislation to ensure seniors can continue to access essential pharmacist-administered services, including tests, vaccines, and treatments for COVID-19 and flu.

Seniors living in both rural and urban communities rely on pharmacists as critical partners in their health care. Nine in ten Americans live within five miles of a pharmacy. Patients and pharmacists establish close long-term relationships, leading pharmacists to be among the most trusted health professionals in the nation.

Over the last three years, pharmacists have helped deliver vitally important care in their communities. By conservative estimates, the 350 million clinical interventions by pharmacists during the pandemic averted one million COVID-19 deaths. Not only that, but pharmacist interventions prevented 8 million hospitalizations and $450 billion in health care costs. In addition to providing COVID-19 services, pharmacists play a critical role in preventing and treating the flu, which has a disproportionate impact on people 65 years and older. According to the CDC, during the 2020-2021 flu season, pharmacists in retail settings alone provided more than 54 million flu vaccines. Pharmacists help seniors manage their health, and that is no truer than for seniors in rural communities and underserved neighborhoods across America.

Rural Americans face constant health care capacity challenges, including health care workforce shortages and hospital closures. Sixty-one percent of primary care shortage areas are in rural communities, and 101 hospitals in rural areas closed from January 2013 through February 2020. For seniors with chronic conditions, a small support network, or with limited transportation options, pharmacists often bridge gaps in care and mobilize to meet patients in their community.

Yet pharmacists continue to operate under a fragile foundation of temporary authorities established in response to the pandemic. As the Public Health Emergency (PHE) comes to an end on May 11, millions of seniors are at risk of losing access to services pharmacists provide to help them stay healthy. While Americans with private insurance, Medicaid beneficiaries, and federal employees may be covered, America’s seniors will be left behind if Congress doesn’t act to ensure access to essential pharmacist services in Medicare.

Our Equitable Community Access to Pharmacist Services Act would bridge gaps in access for seniors and enables pharmacists to continue to protect our nation’s most vulnerable citizens by allowing payment for essential pharmacist-administered services under Medicare Part B. We know how important it is for our constituents to have reliable access to health care services when and where they need it. We’ve heard from patients in small towns across America and hope our colleagues in the House and Senate act now to ensure older Americans can continue to rely on pharmacists.

Adrian Smith and Brad Schneider are sponsors of H.R. 1770, the Equitable Community Access to Pharmacist Services Act.