Journalism 030

Ah, the wonderful world of Washington lobbying.

Carol A. Kelly was named last week to the position of Senior Vice President of Government Affairs and Public Policy with the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), which will celebrate its 75th anniversary next year. Kelly will join NACDS in January.

The NACDS consists of nearly 200 chain community pharmacy companies. Collectively, chain community pharmacy comprises the largest component of pharmacy practice with about 114,000 pharmacists.

The NACDS membership base operates more than 37,000 retail community pharmacies with annual sales totaling nearly $700 billion, including $221 billion in sales for prescription medicines , over-the-counter (OTC) medications and health and beauty aids (HBA). Chain-operated community retail pharmacies fill over 70% of the more than 3.3 billion prescriptions dispensed annually in the United States

Kelly currently serves as Senior Executive Advisor of External Affairs to U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) Michael O. Leavitt where she dealt with health insurance access, value-driven health care, and health information technology. She served as the main HHS liaison to the White House Office of Public Liaison and to the Partnership for Value-driven Health Care, an employer health care reform coalition.

NACDS's mission statement reads in part:

"Creating a favorable political and business climate in which NACDS member companies can carry out their business plans. Developing and promoting policies and programs aimed at improving merchandise distribution and retail operations efficiency."