Up to date information in the field of Independent Pharmacy written by the PRS Pharmacy Consulting Experts and Pharmacists for Pharmacy Owners. Experience Matters.
Pharmacies and Medicare Part B
Pharmacies need to be looking at some of their options for becoming a Medicare Part B Provider/Supplier as a large part of the United States population are becoming Medicare Beneficiaries. This blog will discuss four practice areas payable by Medicare Part B that Pharmacies need to consider to diversify and increase profits. These areas are: Drugs and Biologics (Application: CMS-855S or PECOS) DMEPOS (Application: CMS-855S or PECOS) Immunization (Application: CMS-855B or PECOS) Point of Care Testing (Application: CMS-855B or PECOS)
Ten Steps to Selling a Pharmacy
Here are the ten basic steps in the selling process and the estimated completion time and documents needed for each step. Step 1: Pharmacy Valuation Process Accurately determine the value of the pharmacy. A valuation is just another word for appraisal. Documents: Two to three years of accurate financial statements, which are then recast, or normalized, to remove the expenses a new owner will not have. Two to three years of tax returns Recent inventory Estimated value of equipment, fixtures
HIPAA Access to Records
In this blog, we will discuss one of the “rights” that HIPAA gives individuals concerning their medical records. HIPAA provides the individual with the right to access their records in a “timely” fashion. While not the most cumbersome act in many Pharmacies, the request from patients to access their records is something Pharmacies must respond to in a quick and timely fashion. The Officer of Civil Rights (OCR), the agency responsible for the enforcement of HIPAA, believes that a Patient
Preparing Your Pharmacy for Point of Care Testing
“Point-of-care testing services are anticipated to surpass immunizations to drive revenue. Pressure from payers to detect high-cost diseases early will help speed up the growth of pharmacy-based diagnostic screening services. (https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/us/Documents/risk/us-risk-deloitte-retail-health-and-wellness.pdf)” Over the past decade (and even the last year), we have seen many changes in Community Pharmacy, especially in the clinical arena. Many National Pharmacy Organizations are promoting Point-of-Care Testing (POCT) in Pharmacy, and many Pharmacies have started to add POCT to their clinical and collaborative practice offerings. This
Pharmacy Self-Audits: Preventing PBMs From Taking Back Monies
How do you prevent a PBM auditor from clawing back monies? Pharmacies deal with the threat of PBMs clawing back money daily. Fortunately, many audits resulting in the clawback of monies can be prevented by proactive activities, training, and overall employee understanding. These activities start before the prescription is filled and dispensed and continue after the patient walks out the door. These activities mean more work, but it is work that you and your employees need to be considering as
Common HIPAA Issues – Part 3: Policies and Procedures
HIPAA Policies and Procedures are the foundation of your Pharmacy’s overall HIPAA Compliance and employee Training. Policies and Procedures also happen to be one of the items most often found to be missing, incomplete, or not up-to-date during investigations conducted by the Office of Civil Rights (OCR). What does HIPAA say about Policies and Procedures? HIPAA clearly states you need to have Policies and Procedures. If we look at 45 C.F.R. § 164.530(i), we find that it states the following: “covered entity
Pharmacy Vaccination Programs
This time around, we wanted to talk about vaccine administration in Pharmacy. Pharmacies have been providing vaccinations for decades now (depending on your State). In this time, many Pharmacies have implemented this into their workflow with relative ease. Those were the good old pre-COVID-19 days. With the COVID-19 Vaccinator Provider Agreements and Pharmacies starting to receive the COVID-19 Vaccines, we are starting to receive more and more questions from Pharmacies about what they need to be doing to protect themselves