Changing Pharmacy Management Software? Don’t Neglect Record Retention!

Does the option you are selecting ensure you’ll be able to easily retrieve and provide copies of any required information? Prescriptions, claim data billed to the insurance, signature logs, proof of copay collection and invoice records are all items that a pharmacy would need to be able to access whenever needed. Not only for auditing purposes, but to stay within contractual record keeping requirements as well. Medicare Part D rules require all records to be retrievable for 10 years, plus the current contract year; while Commercial plans, Medicaid, state, and federal requirements can all range from 2 to 7 years.

If you can produce documentation from your old system – great! Will the details pass an audit? Ensuring that prescriptions and other documentation from an old system have all necessary elements and are not missing things like unit of measure, clinical notes, or the pickup date on a signature log is important and can save a pharmacy from having to appeal. This is also a consideration when acquiring another pharmacy’s records. Be aware of potential audit hazards with newly acquired records. Origin codes, state transfer requirements and clear links to original prescriptions should be considered during the acquisition process.

PAAS Tips:

• Ensure you can readily retrieve and print all electronically archived documents in a useable format
• Have access to technical support when using any software vendor to avoid technical difficulties
• When acquiring records or switching to a new system, this typically requires an update to the prescription’s origin code [5], as well as having a clear reference to the original prescription (i.e., crosswalk for data migrations)