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Legislative Day Recap
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LEGISLATIVE DAY GOES VIRTUAL
Although virtual, IPA’s 2021 Legislative Day, the cornerstone of the association’s legislative and public policy efforts, was a great success. On Wednesday, January 27, nearly 150 pharmacy professionals and student pharmacists logged on for virtual programming and grassroots efforts.
The day began with a casual coffee hour to allow attendees to network, engage, and contact their legislators before the event began. Iowa DHS Director Kelly Garcia kicked off formal programming with her opening keynote presentation.
IPA’s Vice President of Public Affairs, Casey Ficek, and IPA lobbyist Matt Eide then provided a briefing on legislative priorities for pharmacy this year, including PBM legislation, COVID-19 policies relating to testing, vaccination and pharmacy technician roles, and Board of Pharmacy priorities.
Following the legislative briefing, IPA presented its 2021 IPA Legislative Champion awards. This year’s honorees were Steve Firman, Chief Executive Officer of Pharmacy Marketing Group, and Randy Edeker, Chief Executive Officer and President of Hy-Vee.
To close formal programming, Casey Ficek was joined by a panel of legislators, including Representative John Forbes, Representative Joe Mitchell, and Senator Pam Jochum. These legislators thanked IPA members and pharmacy professionals across the state for their continued efforts during the COVID-19 pandemic and explained how to best advocate for the profession.
In the weeks leading up to Legislative Day, IPA hosted its first ever Polar PAC Plunge fundraiser for the Iowa Pharmacy Political Action Committee (IPPAC). We far surpassed our goal of raising $5,000 for IPPAC, so both Casey Ficek and IPA’s Vice President of Professional Affairs, Anthony Pudlo, took an icy plunge in a dunk tank! Thank you to those who donated and helped us raise over $6,000 for our political action fund. If you missed it, you can still watch the dunk tank footage on our Facebook page!
Tune in to IPA’s BOP: What, Why & How podcast following each Iowa Board of Pharmacy meeting to recap the board’s actions and earn Pharmacy Law CE!
Each episode will focus on WHAT actions were taken by the Board of Pharmacy, WHY the BOP took the actions it did, and HOW BOP action will impact practice in Iowa.
