NACDS Joins X12 Pharmacy Advisory Panel

The National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) is the sixth pharmacy organization to join the X12 Pharmacy Advisory Panel in support of the X12 billing standard to expand the billing of pharmacist professional services. In 2002, the X12 Pharmacy Advisory Panel was convened for the purpose of advancing professional pharmacy services billing via the ASC X12N 837 standard, the same electronic data interchange claims format used by physicians as well as other health care professionals when billing for professional services. In addition, the panel is working toward the following 3 goals:

• Advancing community pharmacy?s importance as a provider of services to help manage therapeutic outcomes
• Integrating pharmacy into national organizations, systems, and coding nomenclature that have been developed to support professional health care services documentation and claims transactions widely used by almost all other health care providers and by all health care facilities and health plans in the country
• Supporting compensation for pharmacists? professional services Other members of the panel are the American College of Clinical Pharmacy, the American Pharmacists Association, the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, and the National Community Pharmacists Association.