CMS Responds to Pharmacist Petition on Provider Status: A White House petition requesting a change in the “compensation structure allowed under Medicare” so that pharmacists may be recognized as providers under the Social Security Act, reached the required threshold to receive an official response from the Obama Administration. Since the ask pertained to CMS, Principal Deputy Administrator Jonathan Blum recently provided a response, which reiterated that, “pharmacists are not recognized in the Social Security Act as health care providers who are authorized to bill and receive payment for their services from Medicare. To do so would require a change to the statute by Congress.” However CMS goes on to say that “we recognize and value the trusted role that pharmacists play in the community and their importance to patient care”. Pharmacists were reminded that while they may not receive payment for services directly from Medicare, alternative pathways such as “incident to” billing, whereby the pharmacist would receive payment from the physician or non-physician practitioner based on establishment agreements exist, and pharmacists may receive payment for MTM services in the Part D program. pharmacist/CEOBlog/cms-response-misses-point-provider-status
Posted on: Mon, 03 Feb 2014 17:11:43 +0000
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