Empowering Public Health Pharmacy Practice-Moving from Collaborative Practice Agreements to Provider Status in the U.S

Alina Cernasev; Meghana Aruru; Suzanne Clark; Komal Patel; Natalie DiPietro Mager; Vaiyapuri Subramaniam; Hoai-An Truong

doi:10.3390/pharmacy9010057

Empowering Public Health Pharmacy Practice-Moving from Collaborative Practice Agreements to Provider Status in the U.S

Pharmacy (Basel). 2021 Mar 9;9(1):57. doi: 10.3390/pharmacy9010057.

Authors

Alina Cernasev¹, Meghana Aruru², Suzanne Clark³, Komal Patel¹, Natalie DiPietro Mager⁴, Vaiyapuri Subramaniam⁵, Hoai-An Truong⁶

Affiliations

¹ Department of Clinical Pharmacy and Translational Science, University of Tennessee Health Science Center College of Pharmacy, 301 S. Perimeter Park Dr., Suite 220, Nashville, TN 37211, USA.
² Health Analytics Network, LLC, Pittsburgh, PA 15237, USA.
³ Center for Teaching and Learning, California Northstate University College of Pharmacy, 9700 West Taron Drive, Elk Grove, CA 95757, USA.
⁴ Department of Pharmacy Practice, Ohio Northern University College of Pharmacy, 525 S Main St, Ada, OH 45810, USA.
⁵ Washington Metropolitan Society of Health-System Pharmacists, 11160 Veirs Mill Road Suite LLH-18, Box 332, Silver Spring, MD 20902, USA.
⁶ School of Pharmacy & Health Professions, University of Maryland Eastern Shore, 1 College Backbone Road, Princess Anne, MD 21853, USA.

Abstract

This article describes the history and evolution of pharmacist-physician collaborative practice agreements (CPAs) in the United States with future directions to support pharmacists' provider status as the profession continues to evolve from product-oriented to patient-centered care and population health. The pharmacy profession has a long history of dispensing and compounding, with the addition of clinical roles in the late 20th century. These clinical roles have continued to expand into diverse arenas such as communicable and non-communicable diseases, antimicrobial stewardship, emergency preparedness and response, public health education and health promotion, and critical and emergency care. Pharmacists continue to serve as integral members of interprofessional and interdisciplinary healthcare teams. In this context, CPAs allow pharmacists to expand their roles in patient care and may be considered as a step towards securing provider status. Moving beyond CPAs to a provider status would enable pharmacists to be reimbursed for cognitive services and promote integrated public health delivery models.

Keywords: collaborative pharmacy practice agreement; pharmacists; provider status for pharmacists.