Q&A: Pharmacy Advocacy Strong Across Communities, Corporations

From the industry-wide efforts of major players in pharmacy to grassroots efforts at the local level, advocacy for the pharmacy profession is reaching record highs as its workforce faces continued pressures that they’re fighting against on Capitol Hill.

For major drug distributor Cencora, and its Good Neighbor Pharmacy affiliate Moreland & Devitt Pharmacy, one small advocacy effort highlights the massive role pharmacies across the US can play.

“The best thing, in my mind as an old school marketing person, is guerrilla grassroots marketing,” Scott Stoll, CEO of Moreland & Devitt Pharmacy in Illinois, told Drug Topics®. “That’s really what I simplified it down to: How do we build this army of sorts that can go in and make impactful things? My approach, to all of this to really get reform top of mind, was not only educating our customers in order for them to help us, but the bigger piece of it is how do we get their stories out?”

Along with Kenzie Hohman, PharmD, national vice president of community pharmacy solutions at Cencora, Stoll joined Drug Topics to share his pharmacy’s story, how they halted all services for the first time ever in their advocacy efforts, and what companies like Cencora can do to further bolster these efforts.

READ MORE: How Pharmacy Advocacy Is Inherent in Pharmacist Duties

Drug Topics: Scott, can you provide us with a little bit more background regarding your place in this advocacy story, explaining how you helped turn a complex reform effort into a local call to action?

Scott Stoll: In Illinois, there’s been a lot of work ongoing with really no forward movement up until about 2025. [There’s been] lot of discussion about where all of these PBMs fit into our world or don’t fit, in some cases, and how the governmental side of things can help alleviate the pressures that independent pharmacies are seeing. For us, it was an opportunity. Some of us have the width to be able to speak up and maybe lead that charge, and that’s where we felt when some of the reform pieces in Illinois started. We thought, “Okay, this is our opportunity to stand up, fight for all the little pharmacies that maybe couldn’t fight, allow them to hitch their wagon to us if they need to, and be that voice.” We went after it in a really impactful way; we geared up.

My background is in marketing, so for me, it was always about how do we not become so spread thin and what do we utilize? The number one thing that came to my mind was we have thousands and thousands of patients that use us, trust us; community members that, even if they don’t have medications through us, they’ve known us for 65-plus years. That’s the best thing, in my mind as an old school marketing person, is guerrilla grassroots marketing. That’s really what I simplified it down to. How do we build this army of sorts that can go in and make impactful things? My approach, to all of this to really get reform top of mind, was not only educating our customers in order for them to help us, but the bigger piece of it is how do we get their stories out?

Our story is the same as a lot of other stories in independent pharmacy. But, I’ve spoken about it before, we had a patient that went in and hand-delivered multiple letters, specifically because our pharmacist sat down on her couch and waited for her to come home from the hospital one day and was able to provide her medication and take her through everything at 8:00 PM at night. Those are stories that legislators and people that are trying to push reform, or hold back reform, never hear, in my opinion. That was the biggest piece of it was [to] educate, tell the stories of the people that are out there that we’re serving, and focus on how we can distribute that.

We had great local media that were willing to be a part of everything. I had to go into it with the idea “I don’t mind being told no.” I’m going to tell you all of this [and] why it’s important. If you tell me no, that’s okay, but when this works, I’ll talk to you again; that kind of mentality. And that’s what happened. We had a lot of great news outlets that came through. We had a ton of great social media push. We had a plan for that, even adding some humor into it so that people resonated with it.

The most impactful thing was when we closed for a legislative date. Not in our 65-plus years have we ever closed our doors outside of federal holidays, not once. We made a very drastic decision to close all of our doors from all of our pharmacies on legislative day and go to Springfield in Illinois to try to make that statement, and we made it very clear why all of them were closed. I made banners with QR barcodes that said, “Here, scan this. This will send a letter directly to the governor, to the senators, to the representatives.” That was the full grassroots guerrilla marketing. We sent probably 650 to 700 letters over a 2-week period, and it probably topped between 800 and 1000 letters or QR-barcoded pieces that we sent out in a 2-week period. Ultimately, we were glad to see that our legislators, all but one, decided that was important for the state of Illinois.

Drug Topics: Kenzie, what is your organization doing to support advocacy efforts in the pharmacy industry as well as provide the necessary tools for bolstering advocacy at pharmacies like Scott’s?

Kenzie Hohman: First and foremost, Scott’s story is an amazing example and one way at the local level [we’re] really supporting our members in telling their story. That may be enabling or supporting them by providing education to understand key issues or legislation that’s coming down. There’s a multitude of ways we do that, whether it’s our ThoughtSpot event, our newsletter. [We’re] translating the information and helping our members understand key issues and also providing mechanisms to engage with policymakers or tell their story.

On a broader level, we’re fortunate to have a policy and advocacy team that we can work closely with to track, support, and engage with key legislation both at the federal and at the state level. At the federal level, we’re supporting the Main Street Pharmacy Access Act, which is really to enable that access for patients to pharmacist-provided services to establish a Medicare Part B reimbursement. At the state level, we also work with other organizations like the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations (NASPA). Just this year, there’s already been 141 bills introduced across 41 states as of the end of July. [We’re] really helping to champion the progression of bills and legislation that support pharmacist scope of practice, fair reimbursement, and really access to care.

I think, as Scott mentioned in his story, [it’s] translating for our legislators the impact that this has to patients and to community members. It’s really important that we communicate what it means within the walls of the pharmacy but then translating that to really help understand what it means to their communities, to their states, etc. Cencora, Good Neighbor Pharmacy, we’re really proud to support and champion these efforts.

READ MORE: How McKesson Advocates for Pharmacy Support and Sustainability