The Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness (HHS ASPR) has launched the Special Projects for Equitable and Efficient Distribution (SPEED) program for COVID-19 monoclonal antibody (mAb) to long term care facilities. The number of nursing homes who are receiving the monoclonal antibody are increasing.
The SPEED Program is twofold:
- Direct allocation to long-term care pharmacies for them to deploy to nursing homes and assisted living communities through partnerships with American Society of Consultant Pharmacists (ASCP) and AMDA-The Society for Post-Acute and Long-Term Care Medicine
How NHIA can help:
- NHIA has provider companies listed in a PDF for facilities to download and contact to set up home infusion at the LTC center. The home infusion company will help guide the nurse(s) to administer the infusion and do post-infusion monitoring
- Home Infusion provider companies in the bamlanivimab pilot program can be viewed here
How ASCP/AMDA can help:
- AMDA and ASCP have partnered to connect LTC facilities, including nursing homes and assisted living facilities, with participating pharmacies
- Steps for connecting LTC facilities with participating pharmacies:
- Reach out to your current pharmacy to see if they are already participating
- If they are not participating, pharmacies who are interested in participating in the federal allocation program need to submit information to Chad Worz (cworz@ascp.com) at ASCP including the name of the individual location, address, contact person, and email address, and request initial allocation based on pharmacy size
- If the pharmacy is already an Amerisource Bergan customer, include their customer ID, and if they are not a current customer, include the pharmacy license number for the location
- HHS will work to expedite a relationship between Amerisource Bergan Specialty and the pharmacy so that they will receive the product.