FHIR Chat · Custom NUCC Taxonomy Codes

Stream: Da+Vinci+PDex+Plan-Net

Topic: Custom NUCC Taxonomy Codes

David Clowers (Mar 04 2021 at 21:58):

Question regarding using NUCC taxonomy codes to search on/populate the HealthcareService.specialty attribute:

Our source system provides certain search filters based on services offered by pharmacies stored in our database.

About half of these map to existing NUCC taxonomy codes (e.g. 'Long Term Care Pharmacy', 'Indian Health Service/Tribal/Urban Indian Health (I/T/U) Pharmacy', etc.).

However, some of the search filters offered by our source system do not map cleanly to NUCC taxonomy codes. For instance, we have search filters for 24-hour pharmacies, pharmacies offering e-prescribing, etc.

Is there a recommended way of setting up search parameters and attributes to accept custom values for services that do not fit in the existing NUCC taxonomy code list?

Saul Kravitz (Mar 05 2021 at 14:14):

@Gail Kocher

Hi @David Clowers - My take is that these other characteristics are properties of pharmacies, not distinct specialties. (By cc to Gail who is an author of the IG and active on NUCC). For example, a compounding pharmacy could be 24 hr. My take is that these properties don't currently fit in the provider directory, but should be points of discussion for a future revision. I suggest adding a Jira tracker for this against the Plan-Net IG. None are currently planned, but that is because there hasn't been much feedback pointing to deficiencies. Trust me, the IG isn't perfect by any means!

If you incorporate this data into your directory in a non-standard way, might not expect to find it and would ignore it. The idea of the Plan-Net IG is to set expectations so that a client application could be developed that would be successful finding services across all payers' directories. If you added a search non-standard search parameter, it would likely not be used by clients.

David Clowers (Mar 05 2021 at 20:46):

@Saul Kravitz Thank you for your detailed response. Is there some other HealthcareService attribute that could be used to search on these custom filters?

Saul Kravitz (Mar 05 2021 at 21:10):

24hr can be represented using the availableTime fields.
HealthcareService has a MS comment field that might be the best place for e-prescribing.
Neither of these are searchable through the IG's required API.

David Clowers (Mar 06 2021 at 19:57):

Thank you. I will take another look into how we can properly implement these into searches (if at all).

Gail Kocher (Mar 10 2021 at 21:02):

@Saul Kravitz @David Clowers sorry for the delay in responding on this.
The taxonomies available for pharmacies in the NUCC code set were established by working directly with the pharmacy industry. Of the examples noted, I would comment as follows:

24-hour - this is the available time for the pharmacy provider. I would look at heatlhcareservice.availableTime.allday
e-prescribing is another characteristic not a specialty of the pharmacy. Frankly most all pharmacies unless very rural with limited telecommunications access should have e-Rx capabilities. I agree with Saul that this might be something for healthcareservice.type in the future

Kate Dech (Mar 10 2021 at 21:50):

@David Clowers : Adding two cents from another PBM view: We mapped the NCPDP "Services" (Data Q file) to HealthcareService.characteristic (an unbound codeableConcept allowing us to reference NCPDP codes). This is for things like eRx, Immunizations, OnSite Clinic, DME, Compounding (separate from a taxonomy code). There isn't a search parameter for it, but can be filtered on the receiving end.

For 24 hour, we use the Location hours of operation.