Home Forums Discussions Problems Need NPI number on scripts

Per new requirements:

Scripts should have NPI number. Atleast here in Michigan. I have put in a request to AC staff.

Prescriber NPI Requirement
Effective 10/01/2007, the Michigan Department of Community Health (MDCH) will accept only the Prescriber's NPI number in the Prescriber ID field. The Prescriber’s DEA # will no longer be accepted.

http://www.michigan.fhsc.com/

And, people wonder why healthcare costs continue to rise.

I have run into many different entities (mail order pharmacies, supply companies, etc. ) who want NPI numbers on everything. I have sent in a suggested improvement using Amazing Charts - every user should do the same.

Steven:
I am glad you have put in request too.

Till it is fixed I found a work around:

In the admin section:
in practice info section

in the first address line- the red one-- I put in my NPI number.
in the second address line- the non red one- I put in our correct street addesss.

So on the script pad, this NPI will show up, now atleast below the name.

I guess the pharmacists on oct 1, 2007, will decide to call the doc to put in the NPI number on script pad,
so they look up at the top of script to see who is this doc sending script without NPI for our beloved medicaid patient,

bingo, there in NPI just below the name. So they save that phone call back to office.

Thanks for this tip...it will save a lot of phone calls!

Good workaround Joseph.

Come to think of it and maybe I am missing something, but what good are the slots for Tax ID# and NPI# in the user screen? The DEA and License slots both show up on the script, but the others don't. I don't think it is necessary all that helpful to be able to use it as a data source for staff to search especially given that it is supposed to be the ADMIN section.

It would be nice to be able to put the number in place of the DEA or License number for those who don't need it, but I don't believe they are long enough.

Geeze.. like my state license and DEA numbers aren't enough!

Can you folks let me know what other states - if any - besides Michigan - require things besides DEA and license?

V.

Wouldn't it be nice if we could all just agree on one standard for all Rx's across the country. Heck, Nancy used to practice on "the Tier". That's the Southern Tier in NY and the the Northern Tier in PA where the long Western rectagular side of NY runs on top of the same in PA. She had patients who lived in both states at her old practice in Endicott NY (Near Binghamton). Could you imagine if she would have needed to activate two different state Rx's in a small program like AC that only can accommidate one state at a time....

Hey there's another pain in the behind for guys like Jon to have to deal with. Not only does he need to design and comply with over a dozen different states requirements for their state specific Rx's...Now he and other vendors should have to allow any one provider to have access and to choose from multiple state formats according to what state their patient lives or works in to fill the Rx. Imagine living in the four corners region out west if all four states had different conflicting formats??? "Can't we all just get along?" This is just insane.... Can someone please stop the madness???

Vinny:
Try googling this way--
NPI script your state

and see if your state shows up. That is how I confirmed my state info after one pharmacist at a HMO meeting mentioned about new rule.

I am glad you all liked it Bert/Rainy/hockeyref/Vinny.

I see the caveats with workaround mentioned above-- I am solo- it works for me, but---

1. as this is below the name of practice, if it group practice with 2 or more providers- they may need to enter doc A NPI no, doc B... etc. I do not know if there is enough space for all.

2. It will show up even on progress notes, (but should not cause any problems)

3. in the users section of admin, though NPI number has a slot, it does not show up on scripts. Jon/staff may just need to create a link to script.

Thats all folks....

I agree, as I pointed out, Joseph that there needs to be a link. The other numbers serve no purpose at all.

Our state doesn't require DEA numbers except on controlled scripts.

Here is an idea:

Why don't we write the scripts:

Medication: Hi pharmacist. My NPI number is 9999999999. Oh, by the way, I would like to write for Augmentin, etc. Just a joke.

And, Joseph, if you ask Roy, Paul or Brian, they will tell you I am obsessed with workarounds so I recognize a good one when I see one.

He is!

Good or bad news, this is some news:

This thing has been postponed by 6 mths.
http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=14761477

Just like Vinny said, we have had to use such stuff here in NYS for about a year and a half now and of course formatted in a particular NYS way too. Just another piece of garbage for folks like us to have to comply with. And then we need to harrass our vendors like Jon and AC to assist us in complying. Personally, I'm sick and tired of complying, aren't you? And like he said at some point they will probably bang us real hard for the cost of this new improved paper as a hidden tax on doctors. Yes NYS in all it's wisdom has tried a number of times to actually pass an extra tax on all our fees. Like we are a bottomless pit, an endless resource that can just be tapped any time it serves them.

"Do not resist, Resistance is futile, you will be assimilated".

Good Night and Good Luck,
Paul

Yup.

I'm telling you, my bulletin board is filling up with thumbtacked articles about docs who told the whole world to stick it and tried something different: everything from concierge medicine to super-solo cash-only micropractices.

Exactly. Not sure what the climate is where everyone else is, but psychiatrists are in such a demand, that AlL of them are cash only. None of them accept private insurance.

So, I may be off on my numbers, but I am thinking six patients per day, 30 per week so a total patient population of 120 with a waiting list 500 patients long. At $145.00 per 45 minute visit, one gets $217,500 with almost no overhead. Some work out of their house, so they pay liability only. And, the $145 per visit per day is guaranteed, because if you miss your visit, it's still $145.00. If you don't like that, you can leave, then there will only be 449 people on the waiting list.

I should have been a psychiatrist.

Bert,
Although the lack of Shrinks is having the same effect on the market here, I have a half brother who lives and practices in Jon's neck of the woods, eastern Mass and RI. He almost got his head cut off a number of years ago by the state gov't for helping PTSD vet's wake and get their lives back; therefore request ever higher levels of other services. So they tried to take him out at the knees with the typical "Medicaid Fraud" garbage. In the end, they never proved a thing, but my brother was destroyed in the local papers, while no detractions were ever written when he was cleared. Furthermore, it cost him thousands of dollars in legal services to defend himself, all just lost to the cause. And he lost untold amounts of business from the whole thing. What CHITT.

So shrinks are at both sides of the spectrum here just like a number of other docs. I think in that Boston area there are just so many, that perhaps like us in primary care, they can't afford to leave the dirty insurance carriers behind. But I was just discussing the same thing here this morning with Nancy. She just did this really great family intervention, family therapy thing with this mom and her tweenage son that was just wonderful. Very Menuchin like if you know what I mean.

50 points to the first person who actually knows who Salvidor Menuchin is and what was his role in modern healthcare. No google searches now; that's cheating. We'll see just how well rounded your med school and residency rotations really were.... Hint: I was a Pysch Major.

There is another FP in our area that has gone to all psych and doesn't accept many if any insurance. The more I think about it the more I think that my wife should do it. This other guy does a lot of Kids ADD stuff.

Funny how people bitch about paying for those things that they get help with. They grow to think they should just get it on the house. But those things that are not regularly covered like psych and dental, they willingly belly up to the bar and pay for it. Especially when the CHITT hits the fan and they or a loved on really needs the help. Like when their teenage kid gets arrested or kicked out of school, or they can't stand the tooth pain. But should they pay for and apperciate the PCP that controls the cholesterol, BP and DM and keeps them around and healthier for an extra 10 years of life??? Naaaaa.

But as a husband, a father, a consumer of healthcare and as the PM and Hubby of a PCP, the question I ask is why can't we give folks decent coverage while taking reasonable care of the providers who do the hard work of caring for the patients each and every day? Why have all your societies failed all of you so, by allowing the SOB's at the for profit insurance carriers to frame all of you as the crooks, while they stay above the fray? Why has there not been a unified PR campaign by doctors to re-frame the issues here, and re-claim what is yours, including your good name and status in society? Until the majority of Americans see all of you for who and what you really are, and what kind of straights you're really in, you will never get anywhere.

The AMA doesn't even deserve the paper that their letterhead is printed on. They are years too late in reading the writing on the wall and using their limited resources for what really matters. The whole nation and the national news outlets are talking about reforming healthcare and I have yet to see one Doctor or their representives talk about any of the issues that concern any of you except for the following:

Howard Dean who no longer talks about healthcare in terms of a doctor's view point; Dr Gupta on CNN who doesn't have the nuts to use his position to actually say anything substancal about the business of healthcare and actually was beating up on Michael Moore not too long ago picking snots over minor points so as to "shoot the messenger" so as to not have to deal with the larger points he was making. For goodness sake the American Cancer Society has made healthcare for all it's only public message until the message gets thru. Why can't the Medical Societies and the AMA have that same focus, stay on message, and get the job done and get in there with their sleeves rolled up for all of you and for all of our fellow Americans?

Where is your champion??? You all certainly pay way too much in dues for these folks to get off so lightly for doing such a terrible job. They have dropped the ball and we are all the poorer for it.

Warning: the top Democratic Candidate, Senator Clinton, has learned the wrong message from her days of fighting Newt and Harry and Louise. Instead of learning that these guys are all bad news, like Robber Barrons and Carpet Baggers, she has now released a "healthcare plan" that basically leaves the present foxes in charge of the hen house. As long as BC/BS, UHC, Aetna and Cigna are some of the largest players allowed to peddle their undue influence around, nothing is going to change...at least for the better.

Personally, I'm pulling for Edwards. As much as he is a lawyer, he was a working class kid, a self made man from a mill town whose parents really did loss their jobs to the off shoring of our economy and is living with the realities of our aweful healthcare system more than most. And he freely admits that he is lucky enough in his family's dark hours to have such great care. And more importantly, he wants those monsters out of our business. But Senator Clinton has told me all I need to hear. She has taken sides with the enemy, good bye. And she is my Senator no less that I used to be sort of proud to have. Not anymore....

If all of us did nothing else but openly talk about the greedy for profit carriers for what they really are every chance we got; openly calling them the Monsters and Robber Barrons that they really are, we could be lightyears ahead. How many people do we all meet with and talk to everyday? All of them consumers of healthcare, and we all are too.

I've gotta go and get ready for a long weekend. Big In-line Tourney to officiate down in Ithica tomorrow. Have a great weekend everyone....

Good Night and Good Luck,
Paul