AMCP State Advocacy Coordinators:Specific Activities for Advocates

Thank You!

Thank you for serving as a State Advocacy Coordinator for AMCP! Your leadership is at the core of our efforts to influence public policy impacting the profession.

In your role as an S.A.C., you will work with AMCP government affairs staff to:

• Monitor legislation in your state; • Advocate on behalf of AMCP at the state level;• Encourage AMCP members in your state to

respond to AMCP Action Alerts and contact elected officials as necessary.

Specific Activities for Advocates

In this short slide presentation, we’ll give you a list of specific actions you can ask advocates to take.

These are especially useful for interested advocates who want to be immediately engaged.

3 Specific Actions Advocates Can Take

1. Respond to AMCP Action Alerts

2. Provide stories and examples of how policy impacts them and patients

3. Research legislators’ policy interests, committee assignments, and follow them on social media

Action 1Respond to Action Alerts

Action 1: Respond to Action Alerts

Periodically, AMCP will send Action Alert emails. They look like this:

Action 1: Respond to Action Alerts

Action Alerts are the easiest way for advocates to contact a legislator about a bill.

• When AMCP sends an Alert, forward the link to the AMCP members in your state and ask them to take 5 minutes to respond.

• S.A.C.s that encourage participation in their state see the response rate double.

• Advocates can view a short slide show on how and why to send an Alert at: http://www.slideshare.net/advocacyguru/brief-action-alertnov2015-amcp

(Copy and paste the URL from the text box below this window.)

Action 2Ask AMCP Members to Tell a Story

Action 2: Ask AMCP Members to Tell You Their Story

Most people have a reason why they are interested in AMCP advocacy. They may be concerned about or impacted by issues such as:

• Changes to Medicare Part D Rules• Access to biosimilars• Limits on copays or drug tiers• Formulary mandates• Pharmacy Audit procedures

Key questions for your advocates• Why do you support AMCP advocacy?• How do policy issues impact your work? For example:

• How would proposed policy changes impact your ability to manage your formulary? (Examples could be limitations on step therapy, mail order, copays, and prior authorization.)

• How do state legislative policies affect the patient?• How do these decisions impact the level of care that health plans

and PBMs are able to offer?• How have/do your actions impact patients?• For students: How does managed care pharmacy impact the patient

differently from retail or clinical pharmacy? Why are you interested in managed care pharmacy?

Action 2: Ask AMCP Members to Tell You Their Story

To make outreach easier, feel free to cut and paste these questions into an email.

You can use the text below this window or download this PPT.

Action 2: Ask AMCP Members to Tell You Their Story

• Save these stories so you can share them with legislators in the future.

• Providing specific examples of how patient populations are impacted by managed care tools and practices helps legislators understand how public policy impacts their constituents.

Action 2: Ask AMCP Members to Tell You Their Story

Action 3Research Legislators

Action 3: Research Legislators

It’s always a good idea to know something about legislators before reaching out to them. Whenever interested advocates contact you, advise them to take the following steps to get to know their state and federal elected officials:

• Who are their state and federal legislators?• Which committees are they on?• What policy issues are they interested in?

Make sure they know how to find their elected officials. The next slide has some useful websites.

Action 3: Research Legislators

Advocates can enter their home address on these websites to find their federal and state elected officials:

State Legislators: www.openstates.org/find_your_legislator

Members of Congress: www.opencongress.org/people/zipcodelookup

Action 3: Research Legislators

• Go to each of their legislators’ websites• Read their bio• Find out what committee(s) they sit on• Subscribe to their newsletter• Follow them on social media

Once they find their legislators, ask them to:

Ask your advocates to keep you informed if their legislators sit on the health or insurance committee, have interests in managed care policy issues (for or against), or mention managed care issues in their communications.

Contact Information

Thank you, again, for serving as a State Advocacy Coordinator!

If you have questions or would like more ideas, contact AMCP’s Government

Affairs team:(703) 683-8416