Payment for Pharmacist Services in California
As of April 2019, California’s State Medicaid program, Medi-Cal, is providing payment for selected pharmacist services. This change is due to legislation (California Assembly Bill 1114) that was passed in 2016.
What is covered?
Pharmacist services are benefits for eligible fee-for-service Medi-Cal beneficiaries.
The following pharmacist services are now covered:
- Hormonal contraception
- Immunizations
- Tobacco cessation
- Travel health
- Naloxone
At this time, Medi-Cal is allowing pharmacists to bill for the following CPT codes:
- 99201 – New Patient (~10 minutes)
- 99212 – Established Patient (~10 minutes)
- 90471 – Immunization administration only
A new patient is one who has not received any pharmacist services at the same pharmacy in the last 3 years. An established patient has received pharmacist services at the same pharmacy within the last 3 years.
The rate of reimbursement for pharmacist services is 85% the physician rate. This is a change for reimbursement of the pharmacist service only. There is no change to the reimbursement for any medications that are furnished (prescribed and dispensed) — those have always been reimbursed at the same rate regardless of what provider type wrote the prescription.
Pharmacist services must be billed by a Medi-Cal enrolled pharmacy. Since payment will be made to the pharmacy (and not any individual pharmacists), bills must be submitted by the pharmacy and include the rendering provider/pharmacist information.
How do pharmacists get started with billing?
Pharmacists must enroll as an Ordering, Referring, and Prescribing Provider (ORP Provider) with the California Department of Health Care Services (DHCS) in order to bill for these services.
Before beginning the enrollment process, pharmacists will need:
- A Type 1-Individual National Provider Identification (NPI) number. It is free to sign up for your NPI number online and only takes a few minutes.
- A digital copy of their pharmacist (RPH) pocket license from the California Board of Pharmacy.
- A digital copy of their California Drivers License.
To complete the ORP Provider enrollment process, follow these steps:
- Go to the PAVE Portal. If you are a pharmacy owner, you likely already have an account that you use to manage your pharmacy’s Business Profile account. You can invite your staff pharmacists as users for the pharmacy’s Business Profile, so that they may associate themselves with the pharmacy.
- Select New Application.
- Select “I’m new to Medi-Cal and I want to create a new application” and “I’m an individual licensed/certified healthcare practitioner. See screenshot below.
- For Business Structure, select “I’m an Ordering/Referring/Prescribing (ORP) provider.” See screenshot below.
- For NPI number, enter your Type 1-Individual NPI number. This is your personal pharmacist NPI number, not the pharmacy’s NPI number. See screenshot below.
- For Provider type, select Other and type “Pharmacist” in the box. See screenshot below.
- For the remaining steps, follow the instructions to complete your application. TIP: When entering your professional license information, there should be no space between the alpha character and the license number. For example, enter your pharmacist license as RPH12345 without any spaces.
For technical support, call the PAVE Help Desk at (866)252-1949, Monday – Friday, 8:00 am – 6:00 pm Pacific time, excluding state holidays.
When can I start billing?
Visit dates on April 1, 2019 or after can be billed to Medi-Cal. Pharmacists will need to wait for their enrollment as an ORP provider to be approved before they can begin billing — you should expect this to take 3 months and may take up to 6 months.
How do I bill?
All claims must be submitted using CMS Form 1500.
For more information about billing procedures and documentation requirements, see the Medi-Cal Bulletin and follow the link under Item 1 to the provider manual.
References
- California Assembly Bill 1114.
- California Department of Healthcare Services. AB 1114 Pharmacist Services, Frequently Asked Questions.