You’ve probably noticed headlines in states like Maryland, North Dakota, and Wyoming: expansions to pharmacists' ability to bill for medical services. But how do you move from news headline to daily workflow?
Recent laws are enacting a long-held goal for the pharmacy community, recognizing pharmacists as providers through Medicaid and managed health insurance issuers, including reimbursement and inclusion in medical networks.
But after cheering a well-deserved victory, the first question to ask is: how does a pharmacist actually do this? We’ll provide some answers here.
To begin, there are definite similarities in pharmacy and medical claims. For both, key questions are:
The pharmacy claims process for RedSail customers, for example, involves submission from the pharmacy management system > through the PowerLine® claims switch > to the pharmacy benefit organization, and back again.
A pharmacy claim has these attributes:
While still involving the four key questions above, the medical claims process is more complex. Pharmacies would submit a claim from their pharmacy management system > to a medical clearinghouse (for both eligibility and claims) > to the medical benefit organization (again, both eligibility and claims), and back again.
Traditional medical claims billing only addresses some of the important questions of a given claim. The process verifies patient active coverage and deductibles but does not often confirm that the service is covered or that the pharmacy/pharmacist is in network. It also does not help with real-time price (pharmacist’s reimbursement and cost to the patient).
A medical claim has the following attributes:
To successfully provide the clinical services that fall under medical billing, pharmacists need to know what price to charge and what they’ll be reimbursed. They also need to reconcile paid claims and manage rejected claims. That’s why some companies in the market are seeking to better help pharmacists submit medical claims to payers and get fuller answers to the previously mentioned four key questions.
Some programs, like those provided by RedSail Medical Billing (by TransactRx), seek to mimic the pharmacy claims process with medical claims. With medical eligibility and this program’s checks and edits, important information is determined during claims submission: for patients, diagnosis requirements; for services, that it’s a known covered service, specific CPT codes to use, reimbursed price, and % cost to the patient after the deductible. And for providers, known network inclusion.
This way, the medical claims process for a RedSail customer can look like this: get connected to the payer (generally called credentialing/contracting) > connect with your medical billing organization > submit the claim.
When it comes to credentialing and contracting, it helps to think of the requirements as “declaring yourself” and “describing yourself.” To begin, you’ll need to declare that you and your pharmacy offer clinical services.
For Medicare, enroll as a pharmacy and independent laboratory. RedSail Medical Billing can help with this. Note that this is not a Mass Immunizer enrollment.
If you’re not sure how you’re currently enrolled, visit the Medicare Revalidation List. You’ll be given a Medicare ID number or PTAN. For other payers, visit the payer website and complete the initial provider enrollment form to get started.
When credentialing and contracting with payers, you’ll need to describe yourself, including your expertise as a pharmacist/pharmacy.
You can describe yourself in two ways: with taxonomy codes attached to your NPI number and via Council for Affordable Quality Healthcare (CAQH, which allows insurance companies to use a single, uniform application for credentialing).
For your organization, you’ll only need to describe yourself through the taxonomy codes. When billing for clinical services, you’ll also need to describe yourself. You’ll need both an organizational and individual NPI, because most insurances will require an individual NPI. The National Plan & Provider Enumeration System (NPPES) is the place for you to add or modify your NPIs.
Find out how you’ve described yourself so far at the NPPES NPI Registry. Update your NPI taxonomy codes for both your organization and yourself. For example, when billing diabetes education, update your taxonomy codes to Diabetes Educator (163WD0400X). You may be rejected by networks if you don’t describe yourself properly through your NPI.
Remember the foundational requirements of credentialing and contracting will be required regardless of the clinical service you choose to implement in your pharmacy, so now is the time to start laying the groundwork.
Part 2 addresses how to use immunizations as a primary driver for clinical services, billing considerations for other types of clinical services, and workflow best practices, including a paperless experience.
