November 2018 LTCN, Page 4, 60 Seconds, Arnie Clayman

Q: What should providers be doing to prepare for the IMPACT Act?

A:First, to understand that the IMPACT Act is trying to standardize across the post-acute care sector. That includes medication reconciliation, which is directly connected to what we do.

Q: What has been a big challenge for providers and pharmacists?

A:It’s gotten very, very confusing. For example, IMPACT says upon admission medications should be reconciled and clinically significant medication issues must be communicated to the prescriber by midnight of the next calendar day. But what does that mean? There’s already a State Operations Manual required MRR of a new admission, and interim reviews for condition changes.

Facilities are understanding that they really need help with this to implement it appropriately. A lot are looking to their pharmacists to say, “How can we make this work?” A lot of facilities still have paper. There’s no interoperability between pharmacy, pharmacist and facility.

Q: What is ASCP doing to help?

A:We are trying to explain this in terms our members can understand and how to help facilities be compliant. There’s a lot of stuff that needs to get sorted out and ASCP will continue to work with CMS for further clarity.