APhA Policy Manual

Consolidation Within Health Care

FEDERAL PROGRAMS AND POLICIES PHARMACY PRACTICE QUALITY ASSURANCE

APhA advocates that health care mergers and acquisitions must preserve the pharmacist–patient relationship.
APhA supports optimizing the role of pharmacists in the provision of team-based care following health care mergers and acquisitions in order to: (a) enhance patient experience and safety; (b) improve population health; (c) reduce health care costs; and (d) improve the work life of health care providers.
APhA asserts that the scope of review by federal agencies must have a focus on the impact of health care mergers and acquisitions on patient access and the provision of care to ensure optimal patient outcomes. Therefore, APhA calls for (a) reform of the pre–health care mergers and acquisitions process; (b) implementation of an ongoing post–health care mergers and acquisitions evaluation process to preserve patient choice and access to established patient–pharmacist relationships, and (c) continuous transparent dialogue among stakeholders throughout the process.
APhA calls for the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to develop a task force to monitor health care mergers and acquisitions activity.