Moderator
Chris Worrall
10/7/2008

Hi, everybody. I think we’re about to get started. Welcome and my name is Chris Worrall. I’m from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. I’ve been working on pharmacy issues since 2005. Obviously with the implementation of Medication Part D a lot of pharmacy issues have come across my desk but the one that’s coming across my desk right now or one of the ones that are coming across my desk right now is obviously electronic prescribing. Before we get into today’s presentation too much, I want a couple of housekeeping items. First of all, just so everybody knows, this panel’s being held obviously now and again from 10:30 – I’m sorry, from 1 to 2:15. This is not going to be a three-time session today. The third session, the one that’s going to start at 2:30 to 3:45 is going to be next door and that’s the Working Together Session with Providers and Pharmacists that Becky and others pushed for so hard, we thought it was a good idea but we didn’t want to do that all day because there are obviously unique issues to pharmacy and within pharmacy and that’s why today we have three folks to represent three different perspectives here. We have a chain, independent, and long term care pharmacists that are going to present. The other quick housekeeping item is just a reminder that Carrie already gave you all about cell phones. I’ve heard, I’ve never been to one of the meetings, but I’ve heard that at NCDPD, if your cell phone goes off, you stand up and you either tell a joke or you sing a song. I’m not going to make you do that, but if it goes off just hit the button and get that taken care of, if you would, please. Just to start with a little bit of perspective, on January 1, 2006, with the implementation of Part D, we also began requiring that transactions for Medicare Part D followed the Foundation Standards. The Foundation Standards were standards that were already in place, widely used in the pharmacy community and other communities stuff like eligibility, typical claim standards, et cetera. They were the only requirements we had for “e-prescribe” in the Medicare Part D. Effective April 1 of 2009 will be the initial standards. We have piloted these standards. They were not as widely used in Medicare Part D, but the initial standards are – include med history, formulary and benefits, Rx fill, requirement of a prescriber, individual NPI, and those standards were required as of April 1 of next year. So, you know, that – the timing of this may come into play just a little bit just because we know that obviously the MIPPA incentives start of – on January 1 next year, so I think part of what we need to do in this conference is just set expectations. But CMS obviously has a process for adopting these standards and it’s a little bit of a time consuming process but we are on the road to the next level of standards. We have announced that we have partnered with the Rand Corporation to pilot test the next set of standards which include Script 10.5, Codified Sick and Rx Norm, I believe, and so we’re on the path for you prescribing, obviously, where we want it to be in the long run. We understand that there are different perspectives here. I’m curious. How many of you are pharmacists? I think every pharmacist in the conference is here today. There are not a lot of you at this conference. How many of you are prescribers of some sort? And is anybody here from a plan or a pharmaceutical manufacturer or other type of industry? I think a couple of hands. Okay. Well, I’m going to turn it over to the three speakers we have. First is going to be Gary Shelton where Gary is the President and CEO of RNA Health Information Systems. Gary actually directed RNA’s participation on CMS’s new prescribing pilot for long term care last year. After Gary we’re going to turn it over to Don Huonker. Don is a Senior Vice President of Healthcare Innovation for Walgreen’s where he is responsible for all pharmacy technology and developing new HIT with an emphasis on prescribing PHRs and Walgreen system integration. And if you’re familiar with the Walgreen system, you know that’s a big job. And then Dave Feeney is going to speak from the independent pharmacy perspective. Dave is the owner and chief pharmacist at Oxnard Pharmacy, which is an independent pharmacist – pharmacy in Rhode Island. He’s also an adjunct clinical instructor at the University of Rhode Island School of Pharmacy.