September 27, 2012—With a Sept. 30 deadline approaching, a technical problem with the 340B covered entity database is preventing covered entities from printing forms that they must sign to register contract pharmacies in the drug discount program.
The problem appears to have arisen sometime on Sept 25.[ms-protect-content id=”2799″] According to a notice on the database’s home page, “contract pharmacy registrants are currently unable to print the necessary forms at the end of the registration process; we are currently working to resolve this problem and will provide an update to this notification as soon as possible.”
The notice goes on to say that the Office of Pharmacy Affairs (OPA) “will contact entities that register pharmacies prior to the deadline but that are unable to print the forms for signatures due to our technical difficulties.”
Database users “are also unable to generate PDF copies of existing covered entity profile details at this time,” the notice says
Many hospitals, health centers, and other providers are hurrying to enroll new contract pharmacies in 340B by Sept. 30. That is the last day they can be added to the program on a rolling basis, with a start date likely before the end of this year. Under a new enrollment policy that begins Oct. 1, the Office of Pharmacy Affairs (OPA) will accept applications for contract pharmacies (and 340B parent and child sites as well) only between Oct. 1 and Oct. 15 for a Jan. 1, 2013 start date.
Under the contract pharmacy policy that remains in effect through Sept. 30, a representative of both the covered entity and the pharmacy with which it is contracting must sign the printed 340B contract pharmacy registration form. The covered entity must submit the signed form to OPA at least 10 business days before the contract’s effective date. OPA considers the registration complete only when the form has been completed in its entirety and it has received the original, signed copy.[/ms-protect-content]