Dear Colleague,
I had my own taste of March Madness last weekend. I spent a chunk of the weekend in a middle school gym watching rec-league playoff basketball. The games were good and the scores were tight (we won) but the main source of madness in the gym was the stubble-faced dad wearing a scowl that made the Grinch look like a Teletubby and reacting to every play as if it was the NBA Finals.
In a crowd of only about 40 people, he was impossible to ignore.
And completely ineffective.
His message lacked focus, lacked persuasion, and disappeared the moment the final buzzer sounded.
That contrast is worth remembering.
In my last Executive Update, I wrote about NCPA's largest ever consumer branding effort, the "Neighbors, Not Numbers" campaign. Its purpose is straightforward: remind Americans that if their national chain pharmacy has closed — or if the service at their existing pharmacy disappoints, or if they are being pressured into using a mail-order pharmacy — that they have a choice. Independent pharmacies are here delivering care that is personal, accountable, and local.
Unlike the loud voice in a small gym, this campaign is built for reach, repetition, and duration. In its first two weeks, it reached more than 50 million viewers and drove 4,000 new visits to NCPA's independent pharmacy locator. And it will run for two years, not two minutes.
This isn't the first time that NCPA has invested in reaching out to consumers. As the "Voice of Community Pharmacy," NCPA takes that voice to Capitol Hill, supports efforts in state capitals, and reaches out to educate patients about how PBMs are driving up their prescription drug costs.
In 2024, NCPA launched the "Finish the Fight" campaign aimed at PBM reform.
Pharmacy owners had been and were making their feelings about PBM reform well known to Congress (thank you) and NCPA made the strategic decision to ask patients to weigh in. That campaign was successful, resulting in over 30,000 patients sending 92,000 messages to Congress in support of PBM reform! All 100 Senate offices heard from patients. All 435 House offices were touched. And, finally, the first PBM reform in the history of Medicare was signed into law last month!
Was that campaign the only reason for success? No.
Did it help tip the scales? Undoubtedly.
And we weren't willing to find out the hard way whether consumer engagement was the missing ingredient.
Using videos and humor to educate consumers, policymakers, and media about PBMs and the value of independent pharmacies is something NCPA has believed in for a long time. Some of you may remember one of my favorites, Phil Mypockets.
Or these videos from a few years back "featuring" mail-order pharmacy:
A double dribble or traveling call is easier to explain to an audience than the covert, clandestine, convoluted prescription drug pricing system the PBMs have cultivated over the decades. It takes a lot of messages and a lot of repetition to help patients understand they can expect better if they are having a poor experience with a big, national chain or don't want to be coerced into mail-order pharmacy. That message is getting through consistently to a large audience — far beyond the echo chamber of a middle school gym.
Best,
B. Douglas Hoey, Pharmacist, MBA
NCPA CEO
