FPA Elects Regional Directors and Pharmacist Technician Board Member

The Florida Pharmacy Association elected regional directors from regions 2, 4, and 8 and a new pharmacist technician board member for 2020-2022. Tejas Patel, an FPA member since 2018, is an independent pharmacy owner who was educated in India. He was elected as Region 2 representative for Nassau, Duval, Marion, Volusia, Flagler, Putnam, St. Johns and Clay counties. Cheryl Rouse, an FPA member since 2016, owns C&C Community Pharmacy. She was elected as Region 4 representative for Seminole, Orange, Osceola, Lake and Sumter counties.

There will be a runoff election for the Region 6 seat between Kathy Pestos and James Wright. Both candidates received equal votes resulting in a tie. Members in those counties — Brevard, Manatee, Hardee, Okeechobee,

Highlands, DeSoto, Sarasota, Charlotte, Glades, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties should watch for information on participating in the runoff election. Carmen Gordon was elected for Region 8, serving Collier, Monroe and Dade counties. Verender Gail Brown, an FPA member since 2006, was elected pharmacist technician board member. She has been a pharmacy technician for more than 40 years.

Regions are determined geographically based upon equal numbers of pharmacists residing in that area of the state. Serving until July 2021 are Preston McDonald, Region 1; Larry Alaimo, Region 3; James Alcorn, Region 5; Paul Delisser, Region 7; and Mitchell Levinson, Region 9. Elections for those seats and for treasurer-elect will be this fall.

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FPA News & Notes

Brevard Pharmacist Runs for APhA Office

Theresa Tolle, a Brevard County pharmacist and University of Florida graduate, will run for presidentelect for APhA. She will run against Valerie Prince of Springville, Alabama. Election and complete candidate information will be available online in early March. Voting runs March 20-May 11. Results will be announced in June, and successful candidates will be installed March 12-15, 2021, at the APhA national conference.

NPI needed for fee-for-service claims

As of March 2, pharmacies must submit fee-for-service claims that contain the National Provider Identifier for a prescriber when an active NPI is known to Florida Medicaid.

Active NPI means the prescriber is enrolled with Florida Medicaid; the Florida Department of Health license number will no longer be accepted for prescribers with an active NPI.

Pharmacies can expect to receive National Council for Prescription Drug Programs error code 25 — missing/ invalid prescriber ID a the point of sale when a feefor-service claim is submitted that contains the state Department of Health license number for a prescriber with an active NPI. The following supplemental message will post with NCPDP error code 25: Submit prescriber NPI.

Your prescriber NPI may be obtained by any of the following methods: ■ Look up the prescriber’s NPI on the National Plan and Provider Enumeration System. ■ Contact the prescirber’s office. ■ Review the agency’s Provider Master List spreadsheet, which is available on the Secure Web Portal. ■ Call the agency’s pharmacy benefit manager, Magellan Medicaid Administration, 877-553-7481. Pharmacies that cannot timely verify prescriber NPI at the point of sale may submit submission clarification code 42 to temporarily override the error. This will allow the claim to process with the prescriber’s Florida DOH license number, but will not override additional errors that may post on the claim for reasons other than prescriber ID.

The agency will notify pharmacies when SCC 42 is no longer available to override NCPDP error code 25.

FPA Slates Mental Health Conference

The Florida Pharmacy Association will host a mental health clinical conference April 18-19 at the Grand Hyatt, Tampa Bay. The conference will offer the latest information on issues such as ADHD, treatment options for sleep disorders, treatment of memory disorders, and optimizing treatment of anxiety and depression.

Consultant recertification and continuing education credits will be available, including the Florida requirements for medication error CE and human trafficking CE. The deadline to register is April 3 and the last day to get group rates at the hotel is March 24 or until the block is full.

FPA Joins Others in Supreme Court Case

The Florida Pharmacy Association joined with the National Community Pharmacists Association, the Arkansas Pharmacists Association, the American Pharmacists Association and the National Alliance of State Pharmacy Associations in writing an amicus curiae brief with the Supreme Court of the United States.

The associations are supporting a case that pits pharmacy benefit managers against neighborhood health care providers.

“The PBMs have been hiding behind a vaguely worded section of a federal law that was never supposed to apply to them,” said B. Douglas Hoey, CEO of NCPA, which represents 21,000 locally owned pharmacies nationwide. “They operate without meaningful regulation, and because of that they’re able to stack the deck in their favor, and at the expense of community pharmacies and their patients.”

The case, Rutledge v. the Pharmaceutical Care