November 9, 2011—340B hospitals that have not been able to add outpatient facilities to the program because a form and software that they need for enrollment are still being developed can use last year’s form and software instead, the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) has decided.
HRSA announced the “special exception policy” on the Office of Pharmacy Affairs (OPA) Web site on Nov. 2. According to the notice, it applies to “340B eligible hospitals with Medicare cost reporting periods ending on or after April 30, 2011, that wanted to add outpatient facilities and submit their cost reports to meet HRSA’s September 1st deadline for 340B enrollment beginning on October 1, 2011, [but] were unable to do so.”
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) new Medicare hospital cost report form was originally scheduled to be implemented early this year but, according to industry consultants, changes were still being made to it as late as August. Those changes have in turn pushed back the release of commercial software that hospitals use to complete the form.
In light of the delays, HRSA says it will allow hospitals with cost reporting periods ending on or after April 30 that were unable to add outpatient facilities into the program for October enrollment to submit their cost report information to HRSA using last year’s cost reporting forms. Upon submission of the forms and their approval, OPA will enroll new sites into the program immediately and hospitals will not have to wait until the next quarter. HRSA, however, will not allow enrollment to date back retroactively to Oct. 1, and hospitals must submit the cost report forms by Dec. 1.
“We understand from CMS that the new Medicare cost report and cost report software will be available in time for entities to meet HRSA’s next quarterly deadline of December 1,” HRSA said in its notice. “However, if it is not available, HRSA will reevaluate its policy prior to December 1 and provide covered entities additional information about how to register in the program for the quarter beginning January 1, 2012.”
The full text of the special exception policy is currently available on the OPA Web site’s home page.