We hear you! Your pharmacy workplace is stressed and stretched. You have rapidly growing concerns for patient safety. Still, you are there—every day—to care for your patients despite conditions that seem to be working against you.

APhA members representing 31 states, Puerto Rico, and the District of Columbia gathered last week to flex their political muscles at the organization’s first virtual congressional conference. Over the course of the 3-day conference, participants got a crash course on crucial pharmacy practice legislation, worked with colleagues on advocacy strategy, and met with Members of Congress and their staff.

September 9, 2021, was a busy day for the federal government and pharmacy stakeholders alike: Just a few hours apart, we saw significant developments in pharmacists’ COVID-19 pandemic practice authorities and prescription drug pricing. Both items yielded positive news for pharmacists and their patients.

At the U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals last week, Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) and North Dakota delivered oral arguments in litigation over state laws regulating some PBM practices. The proceedings were the latest step in PCMA v Wehbi’s winding path through the courts. The circuit court once sided with the PBM lobbying group, but the U.S. Supreme Court vacated that ruling after it unanimously decided to uphold an Arkansas PBM-regulation law.