GeriMed Long Term Care Membership Criteria
GeriMed enforces strict criteria for our group purchasing membership. These criteria must be followed in order for GeriMed to continue to negotiate favorable contracts for the long term care class of trade.
GeriMed members consist of long term care partnerships and retail independent pharmacies, servicing only institutionalized and home care patients, and pharmacies located on-site in a nursing home facility. An officer of the company must sign an Own Use Statement prior to receiving membership. As defined in the membership agreement, "own use" pertains directly to the patients to whom the pharmacy may dispense pharmaceuticals. In comparing this membership requirement to those of our competitors who offer similar contracting services, these types of statements are becoming an industry standard.
Retail drug stores, wholesalers, and mail order pharmacies are not eligible for GeriMed even though they may service long term care pharmacies. Cmb Eligibility is restricted because federal regulations require all items purchased at special contract pricing to be used strictly for inpatient care in the serviced facilities. Items purchased on contract may not be sold to other entities (e.g., wholesalers, distributors, retail pharmacies, clinics, physician offices, etc.).
If a retail pharmacy is located in the same building (i.e. under the same roof) as your institutional pharmacy, there may be no connecting doors, windows, or common passageways between them. New members must provide GeriMed with copies of separate DEA numbers and pharmacy licenses if they own retail operations. The pharmacy must also establish a separate wholesaler account for the long term care pharmacy. Deliveries must be made directly to the institutional pharmacy. The pharmacies shall have different addresses and separate outside entrances. All pharmacies are inspected prior to final acceptance to ensure adherence to these criteria.
Manufacturers reserve the right to refuse the eligibility of individual members. If you are servicing assisted-living residents, you may be restricted from some pricing as determined by individual manufacturers.
New members are added to the GeriMed program on the first day of the month, 30 days after written notice of membership is sent to the manufacturers and suppliers. Such notice will not be distributed until the appropriate agreements and certifications have been executed. An onsite visit by a GeriMed staff member may be needed as the final step before membership is approved.
Combination Pharmacies:
GeriMed has been working with the manufacturers to allow retail pharmacies with long term care business access to brand manufacturer contracts. If the retail pharmacy is willing to separate their inventory and set up a separate account number for all long term care purchases then several manufacturers will allow access to their agreements. Currently, Johnson and Johnson (requires dispensing data) and Boehringer-Ingelheim allow "combination pharmacies" access to their GeriMed long term care agreements. In addition, pharmacies can access the GeriMed LTC Network for special long term care reimbursement for patients in nursing homes and in some cases assisted living. The generic manufacturers also allow combo pharmacies access to the GeriMed agreements. In many cases, the pricing from the GeriMed generic contracts are significantly better than the pricing from the wholesaler source program. Interested pharmacies can join our Combo Pharmacy group by completing an application and getting a separate account number from their wholesaler.