Medication Error Reporting Through PAAS’ FWA/HIPAA Compliance Program

The importance of having an internal process to record and monitor medication errors cannot be overstated. Being able to identify how medication errors occur can help pharmacy owners avoid repeat issues and pinpoint an area for operational improvement. Medication error reports can also help mitigate legal action if brought against the pharmacy.

PBMs require pharmacies to have a medication error reporting tool as part of credentialing, resulting in pharmacies commonly asking if PAAS offers a medication error reporting tool. The answer is yes! The PAAS Fraud, Waste, and Abuse & HIPAA Compliance Program offers a robust section pertaining to quality assurance incident reporting, including medication error reporting and close call reporting. Section 4.4 “Quality Assurance” speaks to the pharmacy’s dedication to ensuring medication errors and drug interactions are caught and corrected expeditiously in addition to what procedures are implemented to minimize the likelihood of errors occurring. The actionable parts of your medication error reporting can be found in Appendix B in the section entitled Quality Assurance Incident Reporting system (QuAIR). QuAIR meets the federal requirements for pharmacies to have a medication error reporting system in place. For pharmacies looking to develop more robust policies, the Policy & Procedure Manual now allows for custom content in a new section.

If you are not yet an FWA/HIPAA compliance member and would like to schedule a time for a virtual service overview, you can sign up for a time by visiting PAASNational.com/contact. Current FWA/HIPAA member admins and officers can review their compliance tasks in the Member Portal to confirm that your compliance program is up-to-date for 2023. If you would like a PAAS team member to walk-thru the program with you, schedule a virtual meeting here or call us at (608) 873-1342.