Chicago IL: Harish Bhatt, president of the renowned Association of Indian Pharmacists in America (AIPHA), hosted AIPhA\'s exciting Annual Holiday Banquet and Business Expo on Saturday, May 2, 2015in the Meadows Club, 2950 W Golf Road, Rolling Meadows, IL to celebrate Business Expo with members and their families. AIPHA also took the opportunity to discuss the progress and outlook of the pivotal group to the over 600 guests in attendance. Harish Bhatt was the Coordinator of the event. The program was highly successful with the active support of the Executive Board, AIPHA members and volunteers.

The Banquet was attended by dignitaries including Consul General of Chicago Dr Ausaf Sayeed, Air India Nakul Chand, J. Stewart from Department of Prof Regulation, Dr Yash Amin, Director of Drug Compliance, L T. Gov Brian Colgan, State Representative Mr. Marcus Evans, State Representative Michelle Mussman, State Representative Mr. Tom Morrison, Hanover Park Mayor Rodney Craig Mr. Brian Colgan, Chief of Staff of Lieutenant Governor, Nimesh Jani, Elected Trustee of Schaumburg Township, and Hardik Bhatt, Chief Information Officer of the State of Illinois.

\"I want to welcome everyone to our Alpha business expo and banquet. It\'s so nice to see so many of our friends and family, colleagues and supporters. Thank you all for making it out tonight. We cannot have evening without our sponsors so let me recognize and thank to Cardinal Health, HD Smith, Pharmacy Automation, Muller Sports, DGO Global, Best RX, BSN Medical Comp, Air India, Amneal, Colossal, I Medicare, MCKesson, Centrox and Rajini Saggar \" said by Snehal Bhavsar AIPHA Board of Director.

Snehal Bhavsar AIPHA Board of Director invited all dignitaries on stage for lamp lighting. Followed by Chief Guest Speech by Consulate General of India Dr. Ausaf Sayeed and keynote Speech by Jay Stewart.

Bollywood actress Hrishita Bhatt, known for her roles in Asoka, Haasil, and many other movies, performed a dance number. The audience response was loud and enthusiastic. Hrishitaâ€™s dance was the entertainment hit of the evening.

Snehal Bhavsar AIPHA Board of Director invited president Harish Bhatt on stage. \"I want to recognize and congratulate all the pharmacists present tonight. It is you who set up shop in disadvantaged areas where residents lack access to adequate healthcare. This is not at all an easy thing to do, especially considering the challenges associated with owning an independent pharmacy\" said byHarish Bhatt president of AIPHA.

As we all are aware this great nation has given all of us the right to see and fulfill the Great American dream. But the landscape is changing; the fair competition playing ground is disappearing. As we see the conversion of Illinois citizens from the Medicaid and Medicare programs to managed care organizations, but there is such a disparity in payment systems. Why should two providers get paid different when they are providing the same service?

What I believe, is, this conduct of insurance companies is anti-competitive and anti-consumer, and independent pharmacists are left vulnerable to their market power. Physicians get paid to send prescription where pharmacists have to pay to receive them. That leaves me nothing and I have not even added the rent and utilities and payroll etc. What\'s going on with our profession? I started wondering how long will I be able to keep doors open? Last week there was a front page article on the Wall Street Journal that says the fast food worker\'s are demanding $15/hr. Just think, are they all required to be certified? Do they have to pay a license fee? Do they have to recertify every 2 years? Do they have 20 hours of continuing education? Are they going to be required to take two years of schooling to flip a burger? The State of Illinois pays us 40 cents plus the cost of the drug to fill a prescription. We have no control over insurance companies and we have no say in what our government and Medicare decides to pay us.

The State of Illinois says the Medicaid budget is going up every year, and since they cannot control the drug cost, the first thing they do is cut our fee. When county and state government sign contracts with insurance companies, all we ask is for fairness. How can they sign these contracts where they pay independent pharmacists zero fees, but pay chains up to $8 to fill a prescription? A few weeks ago, one of our members lost all his HIV patients in 1 day as Meridian Insurance told him that he couldnâ€™t fill those prescriptions, as they are considered specialty drugs. In one day they took half of his business.

I want to thank our vendors who are standing next to us in ensuring we get the fairest pricing so we can try to compete with the bigger chains. The threat of antitrust liability in the status quo prevents collective negotiation with insurance companies. It sometimes makes me wonder how in our state 602 stores of a publicly traded company can negotiate as one, while 840 independent pharmacies cannot negotiate as one.

Arvind Shah, Pharmacist stated, â€œThis organization has been around over 25 years. This is the largest crowd that I have ever seen for this organization. It is a cause for everyone to get together to learn what is going in the pharmaceutical industry and to have fun.â€ Also, first time attendee pharmacy student from Chicago State University, Aarti Shah said, â€œThis is a great event and we, the students are very happy to be invited to help contribute to AIPHA.â€

â€œThe turnout is different every year for this event. This year the turnout is more than before because people enjoy networking and being involved,â€ said Mr. Bharat Mehta, Accountant for AIPHA.

Award ceremony

Vitthal Patel lifetime contribution

Ilesh Shah Ambassador Award for your service, dedication and inspiration.

Jivan Vachhani Ambassador Award for your service, dedication and inspiration.

Family Style Gourmet Dinner by The Meadows Club Chefs. Entertainment by Classic Production. Rima Girkara, Srikant Narayan, Abhijeet Sawant, and Hricha Narayan. Together they exhibit a unique blend of vitality, melody and emotions which add to the depth and breadth they show in their performances. It was a truly a remarkable show leaving the audience spell bound by his amazing musical talent! Audience to dance to late into the night. The show ended approximate 1:30 AM with Abhijeet Sawant thanking fans for their support.

Executive Board: Harish Bhatt (President), Rajesh Chotalia (Vice President), Jitesh Patel (Secretary), Haresh Khakhkar (Joint Secretary), Vitthal Patel (Treasurer), Jignesh Gandhi (Joint Treasurer) and the Board of Directors included Tushar Mehta, Snehal Bhavsar, Jyotin Parikh, Gajanan Trivedi, Manu Patel, Shital Manek, Kishore Chugh, Mahendra R. Patel, Ambalal S. Patel and Ambalal H. Patel.

About The Association of Indian Pharmacists in America (AIPHA):

The Association of Indian Pharmacists of America is an organization dedicated to increasing cultural awareness and promoting diversity through various pharmaceutical services, promotional, and social events. The AIPHA Parent Chapter has shown its continual support by involving pharmacy students in their monthly board meetings, inviting students to be a part of their annual Holiday Party, helping students reach their career goals, providing scholarships, and of course, offering guidance and support. The members of the AIPHA Parent Chapter are role models for the student pharmacists and their presence in our university chapters has been extremely encouraging. The national organization of the Association of Indian Pharmacists in America (AIPHA) was founded in 1985 by 20 members. Today, there are over 453 members. The student chapter of AIPHA at the University of Illinois-College of Pharmacy was established in 1996 with the same drive and initiative that was shown in 1985. The student chapter of AIPHA has established specific objectives that need to be fulfilled year in and year out. The most important, is to promote the representation of Indo-American practicing pharmacists and student pharmacists in various professional and socio-cultural activities.

Association of Indian Pharmacists in America holds annual banquet