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Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Pharmaceuticals:

CAP Comes Off--CMS Clarifies Part B Timeline

Published on Fri Aug 26, 2005

Providers afforded pair of chances to choose vendor next year.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services clarified the timeline for implementing the controversial Competitive Acquisition Program for Part B drugs in the Sept. 6 Federal Register.

That was then: The original plan called for CMS to accept bids in August and start the program in January, but the agency delayed the CAP until July 2006 to give it more time to deal with comments.

This is now: The first "election period" for the CAP, when physicians have the opportunity to choose to participate and select vendors, will be in spring 2006 instead of fall 2005, CMS clarified. Physicians will have the opportunity to choose whether to participate in the CAP throughout 2006, and then they'll have to decide in November 2006 whether to participate for 2007.

CMS says it expects to refine the CAP program during the delay, although the agency didn't go into any detail about likely changes.
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