HCFA proposal draws criticism
As part of its revisions to federal rules for hospital inclusion in Medicare and Medicaid programs, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA) is proposing the elimination of a requirement that hospitals have a practicing pharmacist on staff or a standard drug formulary.
Predictably, the proposal is drawing fire from pharmacy organizations, which have said that while the proposal probably won't send hospital pharmacists packing, it shows little respect for, or knowledge of, the roles hospital pharmacists play.
"This proposal shows a lack of understanding of the pharmacist's contribution to the effective use of pharmaceuticals and the value added by the one health care professional who is specifically trained in drug therapy management," noted the Academy of Managed Care Pharmacy (AMCP) in comments on file with HCFA.
The AMCP added that any elimination of pharmacists via federal regulation would conflict directly with many state health care laws, and it noted the irony of another HCFA provision that would require hospitals to have no more than a 2% medication error rate with no pharmacists on staff.
Overall, the HCFA rules would drop the need for: "employing a full-time, part-time, or consulting pharmacist; establishing an adequately staffed pharmacy service; requiring that a pharmacist supervise all compounding, packaging, and drug distribution; reporting drug errors, adverse drug reactions, and drug incompatibilities immediately to the attending physician and the quality assurance program; and establishing a drug formulary to assure quality pharmaceuticals at a reasonable cost."
[For more information on sending comments to HCFA, contact the AMCP at (703) 683-8416.]
You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
- Award-winning Medical Content
- Latest Advances & Development in Medicine
- Unbiased Content