Pharmacy cost reporting with an eye on the future.

The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services has decided not to pay hospitals a specific rate in 2006 to cover drug handling costs, but that doesn't mean it won't do so in the future. Hospitals that are dividing their reporting of pharmacy costs on Medicare cost reports between "Pharmacy" and "Drugs Charged to Patients" may be exemplifying best practice in accounting for such costs. Best-practice hospitals will help ensure that CMS will set fair rates for drug handling payments to hospitals, in the event it decides such payments are appropriate.