There’s a quote from NCPA CEO Douglas Hoey that has been rattling around pharmacy circles for a while now, and it’s worth saying out loud:
“Get into politics or get out of pharmacy.”
That sounds provocative. It shouldn’t. It’s just accurate. And this week, two stories landed back to back that make the case better than any argument could.
The Florida Moment Worth Noticing
When ASHP’s Florida affiliate learned one of its members had been chosen to lead state House Democrats, the group used the moment to highlight why pharmacists can make strong political leaders. “Pharmacists understand systems, access, and outcomes,” the group noted.
That three-word framing deserves more attention. Systems. Access. Outcomes. That is not just a description of what pharmacists know. It is a job description for a legislator who wants to fix healthcare, not just talk about it.
The pharmacist in question is a graduate of Florida A&M University and Cornell University who has championed legislation on health care access, higher education, and economic opportunity, issues that are core not just to his caucus, but to the communities he represents.
This is not a coincidence. It is a pattern. When pharmacists enter political life, they bring something most legislators don’t have: a first-person, operational understanding of what happens at the intersection of drugs, disease, insurance systems, and real patients.
The People Already Doing It
There are currently three pharmacists or pharmacy owners serving in the U.S. Congress. Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), who sponsored the PBM Reform Act of 2025, key provisions of which became law in February 2026, kicked off NCPA’s 2026 Congressional Pharmacy Fly-In by sharing tips for meeting with policymakers and talking about pharmacy priorities.
Think about that for a moment. A pharmacist who became a congressman co-authored the legislation that delivered the most significant PBM reform in the history of the profession. He didn’t lobby for it from outside the building. He wrote it from inside.
NCPA noted recently that three pharmacists or pharmacy owners are now serving in Congress, adding: “NCPA’s advocacy team is always eager to hear from our members who are running for office at any level of government.”
Three. In a 535-member Congress. That’s not representation. That’s a starting point.
The Business Case for Getting Involved
Let’s be concrete about this, because too many pharmacists still think advocacy is something that happens at conventions or in press releases, not something that affects their bank account.
ASHP’s 2026 Advocacy Agenda is explicit about what the profession is fighting for: recognition of pharmacists as providers across all payers, including Medicare and Medicaid; inclusion of pharmacists as credentialed providers in payer contracts; enhanced value based payment models that include pharmacists in payer networks; and secured payment for pharmacist provided comprehensive medication management across all payers.
Read that list again slowly, as a business owner.
Provider status recognition under Medicare Part B alone could unlock the ability to bill for services you are already delivering, chronic disease management, comprehensive medication management, medication reconciliation, clinical consultations, that currently generate zero reimbursement. ASHP’s vice president of Government Relations has noted that even if federal provider status is secured, the real action is at the state level. “If we want to rally around something, let’s recognize that most of the action around payment is at the state level. This is where progress is being made.”
Forty state Medicaid programs now recognize pharmacists as providers for at least one billable service, and all 50 states have expanded pharmacists’ ability to provide care. Every one of those expansions started with a pharmacist walking into a statehouse.
What Happened in Washington Last Week
Just days ago, hundreds of independent pharmacists from across the country descended on Washington, D.C. for NCPA’s Congressional Pharmacy Fly-In, now at maximum capacity for the third year in a row. Pharmacists from 43 states and DC visited nearly 300 congressional offices for meetings with members of Congress or their staff, amounting to more than 1,200 individual interactions.
NCPA CEO Douglas Hoey described those face-to-face meetings as “the most important grassroots event of the year. Nothing has a bigger, more concentrated impact than independent pharmacists meeting personally with their representatives and their staff members.”
And Hoey offered one of the clearest statements on advocacy that any pharmacy leader has made in recent memory: “We’re grateful for the hundreds of NCPA members who took time away from their business to ‘get into politics or get out of pharmacy.'”
That is not hyperbole. It is a business reality dressed in honest language.
The Revenue Connection Most Pharmacy Owners Miss
Here is the thing about the ASHP advocacy agenda, the NCPA fly-in, the state legislative sessions, and every committee hearing where pharmacy gets a seat at the table: this is not abstract policy work. This is your revenue model.
Every time a state passes provider status legislation, pharmacists in that state gain the legal authority to bill for clinical services they were already providing for free. Every time a PBM reform passes, as one just did at the federal level, the reimbursement floor rises slightly. Every time a pharmacist sits on a legislative committee, the next pharmacy related bill gets written with more accuracy about how the profession works.
One state level advocate described the shift that happens when pharmacists engage their legislators personally: “I would love to be able to go to a congressman and say, ‘Did you know that your seniors in your state are the only people who can’t access a pharmacist’s services?’ That’s a very different conversation than saying, ‘Please, won’t you support pharmacist provider status?'”
Patient stories are the currency of legislative advocacy. And pharmacists have more of them than anyone.
Your Move This Week
You don’t have to run for Congress. You don’t even have to run for a school board. But you do need to know who your state representative is, what pharmacy bills are moving through your statehouse right now, and whether your state pharmacy association has a legislative day or fly-in this year.
Find your state pharmacy association. Find their 2026 legislative priorities. Then find out when your legislature is in session and when committee hearings relevant to pharmacy are being scheduled.
Show up once. In person. With a real patient story.
The pharmacists who become known faces to their legislators are the ones who get called when pharmacy related bills are being drafted. That phone call, that moment of access, is where the business-shaping decisions are made.
The PBM reform that passed in February 2026? It happened because pharmacists walked into offices, told their stories, and came back the following year and did it again. For over a decade. That is how it works.
The pharmacists who figure this out earliest will shape the environment they operate in. The ones who don’t will keep reacting to it.
Sources: ASHP NewsCenter, ASHP 2026 Advocacy Agenda, ASHP Strategic Plan, NCPA (2026 Congressional Pharmacy Fly-In), NCPA Executive Update (April 17, 2026), Chain Drug Review, Florida Politics, Drug Topics
