Latebreakers: August 21, 2006

The Pharmacist Services Technical Advisory Coalition, founded in 2002 to improve the coding infrastructure required for billing of pharmacist services, has successfully gained revisions in the Health Care Provider Taxonomy Code List for pharmacy service providers and pharmacy suppliers. Among the new categories are geriatric, oncology, and compounding pharmacy. Changes in definitions for existing pharmacist categories include nuclear, nutrition support, pharmacotherapy, and psychiatric. The code review was performed in preparation for implementation of a National Provider Identifier (NPI), as mandated by HIPAA. According to PSTAC, providers may have one or more taxonomy codes, depending on their areas of specialization, and providers that have already completed the NPI application may need to update the code(s) in their NPI record. The new changes were announced in July by the National Uniform Claims Committee and will go into effect on Oct. 1. For a complete list of taxonomy codes, visit..