The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services' durable medical equipment accreditation requirement threatens patient access to important medical products because it adds unnecessary costs that will prevent pharmacists from being able to provide those services, according to the National Community Pharmacists Association.
"Every time we turn around we seem to have created an impediment to keeping pharmacies around the country," said Rep. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.).
H.R. 616, introduced on Jan. 21 by Reps. Marion Berry (D-Ark.) and Moran will include language to add community pharmacists to the long list of medical professionals that have been conditionally exempted from the requirement by CMS (i.e. physicians, physical therapists, nurse practitioners, orthotists, prosthetists, opticians, etc.).
Many senior citizens and the disabled depend on pharmacies to survive, said Moran, and local pharmacists wouldn't have the ability to provide supplies for diabetes, DME and other cases if the current polices were to stay in place, according to Berry.
Current policies require pharmacists to pay $2,000-$3,000 out of pocket and meet an application and implementation deadline of Sept. 30. Additional training and accreditation runs pharmacists another $3,500 over the following three years.
Many pharmacies in Kansas now want to get out of the DME business because of all the hoops they have to jump through, said Mike Larkin, executive director of the Kansas Pharmacists Association.
"The problem, given that we are a rural state, is the access, and sometimes pharmacists are the only trained healthcare provider for miles," said Larkin.
The changes proposed in H.R. 616 will preserve patient access to valuable medical products and services.
"The pharmacists are the frontline folks," said Mark Riley, executive director of the Arkansas Pharmacists Association. "It seems to me that everyone in the equation loses right now."