During the 2023 Legislative Session, the General Assembly passed, and the Governor signed into law, a statute making gabapentin a drug whose dispensing must be reported to the Controlled Substance Reporting System (CSRS). Gabapentin becomes reportable on March 1, 2024. The Drug Control Unit, which administers the CSRS, has created an FAQ guidance document for dispensers. Pharmacists with additional questions should contact the Drug Control Unit.
Note that based on an NC Retail Merchants Association amendment, pharmacies are not required to report gabapentin to the CSRS when gabapentin is a component of a compounded prescription that is dispensed in dosages of 100 milligrams or less; see new G.S. 90-113.73(c)(1).
Also in North Carolina, on January 10, Medicaid released the following concerning pharmacy eligibility to serve as Medicaid providers. All questions should be directed to Medicaid.
Beginning in May 2021, NC Medicaid started taking additional steps, as outlined in the NCTracks Changes to Provider Verification Process bulletin, to ensure providers meet their contractual obligation to maintain their credentials on their NCTracks provider enrollment record. Multiple bulletin articles were published to notify providers of the change, and providers receive four targeted reminders prior to their suspension notification. Regardless of these efforts to inform and assist providers with this responsibility, we continue to see a fairly large number suspended, and subsequently terminated, from the NC Medicaid program due to their expired credential.
For this reason, and as part of an additional outreach effort, we are notifying NC associations when the number of provider taxonomy suspensions exceeds a defined threshold of unique providers on the report received at the end of each month.
On December 31, 2023, approximately 115 Pharmacist providers were suspended due to an expired credential. These providers have sixty days from the date of suspension to ensure that their license is renewed, and their NCTracks provider enrollment record is updated to avoid termination. Providers may update their NCTracks provider record through the Manage Change Request process. NCTracks User Guides and Fact Sheets offer basic instructions for making the necessary update and any additional questions may be referred to the NCTracks Call Center at 800-668-6696.
For more information, contact NACDS’ Leigh Knotts at 803-243-7207.