COVID-19 has intensified the mental health pandemic, said Julie A. Dopheide, PharmD, BCPP, FASHP. What’s worse is that access to mental health care continues to be a challenge for individuals.

During APhA’s annual meeting held in San Antonio, TX, March 17 to 21, 2022, APhA’s House of Delegates introduced and passed an urgent new business item, which addressed the American Medical Association’s policies related to pharmacists’ scope of practice.

DEA administrator Anne Milgram announced the agency’s continued support for expanding access to medication-assisted treatment (MAT) to help individuals with substance use disorder.

On March 24, Congressman Ron Kind (D-WI), Congressman David B. McKinley (R-WV), Congresswoman Nanette Diaz Barragán (D-CA), and Congressman Buddy Carter (R-GA) introduced the Equitable Community Access to Pharmacist Services Act, a groundbreaking piece of legislation that would allow Medicare patients to continue to receive treatment from pharmacists for pandemic-related health services and would permit pharmacists to respond to ongoing and future public health crises.

We’ll see soon that digital health is simply health care, said Daniel Zlott, PharmD, APhA’s senior vice president of education and business development, during APhA’s second annual DigitalHealth.Rx summit, which was held in-person on March 17, in conjunction with APhA2022 in San Antonio, TX.