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NCPDP Engages JC White Consulting to Support Its “Edvocacy” Educational Program

SCOTTSDALE, AZ — (Marketwire) — 03/18/13 — The announced that it engaged JC White Consulting (JCWC), a Washington D.C.-based full service government and public affairs firm, to support its “edvocacy” educational program to increase awareness among federal and state legislators of NCPDP standards that have delivered proven operational efficiencies, cost savings and patient health and safety benefits.

“The partnership with JCWC enables us to extend NCPDP-s reach and intensify our long-standing commitment to public policy, increasing visibility with key decision-makers who may not be aware of the importance of pharmacy and healthcare information technology (HIT) standards in improving healthcare quality and efficiencies,” said Lee Ann Stember, President of NCPDP. “JCWC will help inform policymakers about the impact proposed legislation and decisions have on the industry and our more than 1,500 members.”

“The relationship with NCPDP is a natural fit,” said JCWC President Joel White. “We are a mission-driven, policy-focused organization that has been working on integrating high-value, consensus-driven standards into the health policy environment for decades. We hope our educational outreach will drive adoption of standards to further improve health markets.”

NCPDP-s top edvocacy priorities include:

Implementation of the Affordable Care Act;

Standards for Meaningful Use of electronic health records;

Issues related to regulation of compounding pharmacies;

Recognition of the value of pharmacists in payment and care delivery models;

Interoperability and coordination with Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMP);

Biosimilar products and substitution;

Medication adherence;

Track-and-trace system for prescription drugs;

Average manufacturer pricing (AMP) in the Medicaid Program;

340B Drug Discount Program;

Extension of the Stark exception and anti-kickback safe harbor rule for health IT;

New HIPAA rules; and

Drug Shortages.

JCWC will also provide subscribers of NCPDP-s RxReconn® additional commentary and context industry-related legislative and regulatory activity. For more information on RxReconn®, visit .

Founded in 1977, NCPDP is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited, Standards Development Organization with over 1,600 members representing virtually every sector of the pharmacy services industry. Our diverse membership provides leadership and healthcare business solutions through education and standards, created using the consensus building process. NCPDP has been named in federal legislation, including HIPAA, MMA, and HITECH. NCPDP members have created standards such as the Telecommunication Standard and Batch Standard, the SCRIPT Standard for e-Prescribing, the Manufacturers Rebate Standard and more to improve communication within the pharmacy industry. Our data products include dataQ®, a robust database of information on more than 76,000 pharmacies, and HCIdea®, a database of continually updated information on more than 2.3 million prescribers. NCPDP-s RxReconn® is a legislative tracking product for real-time monitoring of pharmacy-related state and national legislative and regulatory activity. For more information about NCPDP Standards, Data Services, Products, Educational Programs and Work Group meetings, go online at or call (480) 477-1000.