NCPA Praises Bureau of Competition New Hire
The National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) has praised the hire of Emma Mittelstaedt Burnham to the post of the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC) associate director of health care, bureau of competition.
“Fair competition is essential in the health-care sector,” NCPA CEO B. Douglas Hoey said in a Sept. 10 news announcement. “Without it, powerful companies like PBMs [pharmacy benefit managers] and insurers manipulate the system in their own favor, and at the expense of consumers, patients, taxpayers and small providers like independent pharmacies. Ms. Mittelstaedt Burnham has extensive experience investigating bad actors as an attorney with the DOJ [Department of Justice], and we expect her to direct that focus to PBMs, where it is badly needed.”
NCPA added that it has worked with the FTC for years on antitrust matters, and that the agency “is also active in state and federal courts, supporting litigation against pharmacy benefit managers for their anticompetitive practices.”
NCPA Names Keynote Speaker for October Convention
Sports journalist Marty Smith will be the keynote speaker at the National Community Pharmacists Association’s (NCPA) annual convention, Oct. 18-21 in New Orleans.
Smith is best known for his work at ESPN, where he has covered college and professional football, college and professional basketball, and auto racing, including NASCAR events.
NCPA said in a Sept. 18 announcement that Smith has also published two books, including Sideline CEO, in which he “shares leadership lessons from championship coaches, offering insights that extend beyond sports into everyday life. Smith will be talking through these observations and much more during NCPA’s general session on Sunday, Oct. 19.”
Registration for the conference and expo — themed “Growth, Performance, Success” — is now open.
