Its use is primarily for the purchase of the drug, but, even here, it has a very narrow application. In other words, it begins and ends simply as a reference to the purchase order and is used mostly for inventory control. Pharmacy departments told us they would need to build new interfaces with their dispensing systems. A failure of referencing the correct NDC could cause a medication error. Furthermore, hospitals often repackage and provide unit dosages that differ from the purchased drug.
Hospitals also provide drugs that are compounds of different drugs.
Under these circumstances, the NDC may not be readily available or even exist. Trying to implement NDC on a claim based on the NDC number provided at the time of purchase would not correspond to the drug dispensed to the patient. Consequently, the NDC would only add new operational burdens to caregivers without corresponding savings. The reasoning is that payers, like Medicare, rely upon prospective payment systems to reimburse providers for inpatient services. The only time payers would need greater specificity is if a particular type of drug or biologic is furnished under special circumstances.