AMCP State Advocacy Coordinators: Specific Activities for Advocates

1. AMCP State Advocacy Coordinators:
Specific Activities for Advocates

2. 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.

3. 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.

4. 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

5. Action 1
Respond to Action Alerts

6. Action 1: Respond to Action Alerts
Periodically, AMCP will send Action Alert
emails. They look like this:

7. 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.)

8. Action 2
Ask AMCP Members to Tell a Story

9. 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

10. 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

11. 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

12. • 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

13. Action 3
Research Legislators

14. 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.

15. 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

16. 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.

17. 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