Docs to CMS: Streamline prescription process
By HME News Staff
Updated Fri May 24, 2013
LEAWOOD, Kan. - The American Academy of Family Physicians, an organization representing family doctors and medical students, is calling on CMS to simplify the Medicare requirements for prescribing diabetic supplies, according to a press release. The organization wants CMS to allow physicians to use more generic terms when writing prescriptions and to allow them to write open-ended prescriptions, the release noted. AAFP Board Chair Glen Stream, M.D., said in a letter to CMS that lengthy requirements for Medicare glucose testing supplies often result in processing errors. He also said that having to specify the exact brand of machine, test strips or lancets needed by the patient can be onerous, and that the information is often immaterial. “Family physicians simply want to be able to efficiently and effectively prescribe what their diabetic patients need to help manage their condition in a way that maintains their health,” Stream wrote in the letter. “The current Medicare rules surrounding prescription of diabetic supplies impede this goal and add no discernible value to the care of such patients.”
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