APhA Policy Manual

1. APhA supports pharmacists being recognized as independent health care providers with regard to recommending and administering vaccines based on shared clinical decision making (SCDM).
2. APhA advocates for compensation for shared clinical decision making (SCDM) consultations in addition to vaccine administration fees to increase patient access to SCDM vaccines.

1. APhA supports equitable patient access to evidence-based comprehensive reproductive health care, including, but not limited to, the management of pregnancy loss, ectopic pregnancy, infertility, pregnancy termination, contraception, and permanent contraception.
2. APhA recognizes patient autonomy in choosing reproductive health care services and the essential role of all health care professionals in facilitating access and advancing informed decision making.
3. APhA supports evidence-based laws, regulations, and policies that ensure patient access to comprehensive reproductive health care services.
4. APhA opposes legal actions against pharmacies, pharmacists, and pharmacy personnel that provide patient access to, or information regarding, reproductive health care services that are within pharmacist scope of practice.

1. APhA opposes drug manufacturers' refusal to supply certain drugs to correctional health services units necessary to provide medical treatment of those who are incarcerated.
2. APhA advocates for those who are incarcerated to have an opportunity, equal to that of nonmates, to access medications that correctional healthcare providers deem medically necessary for appropriate and humane health care treatment.
3. APhA advocates for correctional healthcare providers to have opportunity, equal to that of non-correctional healthcare providers, to access, prescribe, and procure pharmaceuticals deemed necessary for medical treatment of those incarcerated.

APhA affirms that discrimination and stigma should not impact a patient’s ability to obtain medications.

1. APhA calls for the elimination of payer-driven medication administration policies and provisions that restrict access points, interfere with shared provider–patient decision-making, cause delays in care, or otherwise adversely impact the patient.
2. APhA asserts that care coordination services associated with provider-administered medications are essential to safe and effective medication use and calls for the development of broadly applicable compensation mechanisms for these essential services.

1. APhA opposes mandated procurement strategies that restrict patients’ and providers’ ability to choose treatment options and that compromise patient safety and quality of care.
2. APhA calls for procurement strategies and care models that lower total costs, do not restrict or delay care, and ensure continuity of care.

1. APhA supports the patient’s freedom to choose a provider of health care services and a provider’s right to be offered participation in governmental or other third-party programs under equal terms and conditions.
2. APhA opposes government or other third-party programs that impose financial disincentives or penalties that inhibit the patient’s freedom to choose a provider or health care services.
3. APhA supports that patients who must rely upon governmentally financed or administered programs are entitled to the same high quality of pharmaceutical services as are provided to the population as a whole.