On the latest Facing the Future, I was joined by Robin Abbott, CEO of the New Hampshire Society of CPAs, and Matt DiLoreto, vice president of state government affairs for the Healthcare Distribution Alliance. We discussed how the pandemic, recent changes in tax law, and COVID-19 legislation have impacted CPAs, as well as the role of wholesalers in vaccine distribution, including bumps in the road, successes, and improvements.

DiLoreto broke down the role of wholesalers in the health care supply chain, including COVID-19 vaccine distribution.

“The United States’ supply chain operates in a manner that about 93 percent of pharmaceuticals nationwide are arriving at a dispensing or administration location from an HDA member, a wholesale distributor,” DiLoreto said. “We’ve been involved since the very early days of the pandemic … early on, we were modifying our operations to respond to shortages of medical supplies or pharmaceuticals to treat COVID … now, we have transitioned to a period of time where everything is focused on vaccine distribution.”

“During this pandemic, and especially during vaccine distribution, all orders are being driven by the government,” he added. “The federal government is allocating products to the states, and then the states have their own individual distribution plans on where those products go.”

Abbott shared insights on trends in the accounting industry, how the COVID-19 pandemic has changed CPAs’ work environment and responsibilities, as well as near and long-term issues.

“Let’s get through this second round of PPP and the CARES Act,” Abbott said. “Then, I would love to see some normalcy around getting back to some of those boring audit issues. But, what’s in the back of our minds is the year 2025, when there are 23 expiring provisions of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act – there’s a lot of big things there too.”

Hear more on Facing the Future. I host the program each week on WKXL, NHTalkRadio.com (N.H.), and it is also available via podcast. Join me and my guests as we discuss issues relating to national fiscal policy with budget experts, industry leaders, and elected officials. Past broadcasts are available here. You can subscribe to the podcast on Spotify, Pandora, iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher or with an RSS feed. Follow Facing the Future on Facebook, and watch videos from past episodes on The Concord Coalition YouTube channel.