September 24, 2012—The American Pharmacists Association (APhA) has been awarded a one-year contract with four option years to operate the successor to the Pharmacy Services Support Center (PSSC), the 340B technical assistance agency that APhA has run since 2002 under two previous federal contracts.
The new agency will begin operations on Oct. 1, the pharmacists’ group said in a Sept. 21 news release.[ms-protect-content id=”2799″] Its mission will be markedly different than that of PSSC and there are indications it might have a different name.
The Health Resources and Services Administration’s (HRSA) Office of Pharmacy Affairs (OPA) has two primary contractors: APhA and Apexus, which operates the 340B Prime Vendor Program (PVP). Earlier this month, HRSA renewed Apexus’ contract to run PVP for another year. In 2009, HRSA signed Apexus to a two-year base contract with three option years.
With the APhA contract award, the 340B leadership triad of OPA, APhA, and Apexus will remain in place for a minimum of one year and likely for the foreseeable future. This year marks APhA’s 10th year as an OPA contractor and Apexus’ ninth.
The APhA award and Apexus renewal occur at a critical juncture for OPA, which is responding to demands from influential members of Congress to ramp up its oversight of the 340B program. Combined with its extension of the Apexus contract, HRSA’s decision to give the new contract to APhA maintains continuity in the 340B program at a time of great change.
The new contract agency’s main duties, as outlined in HRSA’s July 9 request for proposals (RFP), reflect the changes taking place at OPA. The task list includes:
- Reviewing and analyzing 340B covered entity and HRSA grantee audit reports and suggesting policy improvements and training opportunities.
- Educating 340B stakeholders about the drug discount program and its program integrity requirements.
- Accompanying auditors on covered entity audits up to 10 times per year.
- Analyzing state and federal laws and regulations affecting 340B specifically and pharmacy services more broadly.
- Educating HRSA staff and grantees about grant requirements.
- Managing the 340B Peer-to-Peer network.
One of APhA’s first missions under the new contract reportedly will be the development of a 340B best-practices toolkit to help provider and industry stakeholders build and maintain compliant programs.
There were indications in the RFP that, under the new contract, APhA will no longer operate a 340B call center and 1-800 support line. It is not clear what will happen to the PSSC Web site.
The RFP also indicated that APhA might eventually assume responsibility from OPA “for registration/change requests/re-verification/recertification for all categories of covered entities.” All of this work related to OPA’s 340B covered entity database is currently performed in-house.
“During the next five-year contract, APhA will realign the focus of its current [340B] technical assistance model,” the group said in its news release. “APhA will support OPA in its efforts to strengthen and maintain the 340B program’s integrity and compliance through various activities. Additionally, APhA will support HRSA’s efforts to build the Patient Safety and Clinical Pharmacy Services Collaborative (PSPC).”
“APhA will be working closely with HRSA to ensure a work plan is devised that meets HRSA and stakeholders needs while keeping the integrity of the 340B program core to our discussions,” said APhA Vice President Lisa Scholz, who has led PSSC for the past several years. “APhA will assist HRSA in developing new ways to educate all of its stakeholders and partners, as well as connect HRSA to experts on all issues that impact the 340B program, in a time of heightened program awareness.”
The Monitor is awaiting comment and additional information from HRSA about the contract award and will provide updates as they become available.[/ms-protect-content]