Medicare Compliance & Reimbursement

Time limitation bumped up to 10 years.

Drug makers will need to hold onto pricing and rebate records longer than they had thought.   In the Jan. 6 Federal Register, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services issued an interim final rule extending the three-year record-keeping requirement to 10 years. The change comes after last fall's onslaught of criticism led by fraud hawk Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) and over 45 attorneys general across the country. Grassley and the AGs called on Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson and former CMS chief Tom Scully to immediately withdraw the Aug. 29 final rule that allowed pharmaceutical companies to destroy documents relating to the Medicaid drug rebate program after three years. The AGs claimed the 3-year provision was too brief and would threaten valuable evidence in fraud cases. To see the rule, which went in to effect Jan 1, 2004, go to www.access.gpo.gov/su_docs/fedreg/a040106c.html. Lesson Learned: The extension scored by fraud fighters signals the ongoing intensification of scrutiny on pharma companies' Medicaid drug rebate records.