WASHINGTON — At almost the last minute, the House of Representatives today passed H.R. 3663, a bill that extends the accreditation deadline for pharmacies providing DMEPOS from today to Dec. 31, 2009.
Introduced Wednesday by Reps. Zack Spence, D-Ohio, and Lee Terry, R-Neb., the extension allows pharmacy providers a bit of breathing space as Congress debates separate calls to exempt pharmacies from the accreditation mandate.
The National Community Pharmacy Association, which represents the owners of more than 23,000 pharmacies, applauded the House's vote, saying that the extension is a boon for patients.
"Seniors are the real winners from this vote," said Bruce T. Roberts, RPh, NCPA executive vice president and CEO, who campaigned for the Senate to pass a similar bill today. "This bill would allow seniors to continue relying on their pharmacists to help manage diseases like diabetes."
If Congress doesn't come together to extend the deadline, Roberts noted, "tomorrow morning, thousands of community pharmacies will no longer be able to offer these supplies and patients will experience an unwelcome disruption in their health care regimen. The Senate must now act as quickly as possible so the president can sign it into law."
Pharmacists' groups around the nation have argued for months that pharmacies should be exempt from the CMS mandate, which requires all providers of Medicare Part B DMEPOS to be accredited by today. Pharmacies are already heavily regulated in their states, and accreditation is time consuming and expensive, the associations argued. As well, they pointed out, dozens of other state-licensed providers have already been exempted.
