Emporos customers know the value of having FSA-Eligible Items flagged as "Qualified" automatically by their MerchantSoft POS... and now it looks like the long-awaited category of sunscreen may soon be added.
SIGIS' latest newsletter says:
"... we are reviewing product descriptions of sunscreen and sunblock products to determine which broad spectrum, SPF 15+ items can be added to the list."
"Note that we will add only those items that can be clearly identified as SPF 15 or higher and that provide protection against both ultraviolet B radiation (UVB) and ultraviolet A radiation (UVA). These products will not require an Rx for purchase with a health care debit card at SIGIS certified merchants."
All this, just in time for winter! :)
For more information, visit SIGIS' website.
Emporos joins the National Community Pharmacists Association in endorsing the bipartisan proposal to restore patients' ability to purchase over-the-counter medications with their Flexible Spending Account (FSA). With Emporos' MerchantSoft pharmacy point of sale system, eligible OTC items are flagged for purchase with an FSA card. If this proposal passes and SIGIS expands the list of eligible items, MerchantSoft will automatically update customers' system with the expanded list.
Read more about this proposal at the NCPA's website.
By now you should know that because of the health reform law, your pharmacy customers won't be able to buy over-the-counter (OTC) medications in 2011 with their pre-tax health benefit cards (Flexible Spending Account/FSA, Health Savings Account/HSA, Health Reimbursement Arrangement/HRA) like they have been used to doing. Therefore, use this as a sales and education opportunity...
Encourage your customers to go ahead and stock-up on OTC medications before cold & flu season, before the law goes into effect, and before they lose their FSA dollars (most plans require you to spend-it-or-lose-it by the end of the year).
For more info, see http://www.sig-is.org/en/index.asp and http://www.sig-is.org/en/resources/irs_guidance.asp for more info.
On occasion MerchantSoft customers may need to access their Credit Card Processor’s Gateway to resolve credit card errors. We will cover when, why and how to access the gateway.
Target Audience: Customers that process CC/Debit/FSA on Emporos Ingenico devices
Date: Wednesday, September 29, 2010
Time: 3:00pm EDT
Duration: 30 minutes
Register here!
Have you deployed point of sale in your pharmacy but are not seeing the benefits you expected? Are you considering purchasing POS but want to be a more educated buyer?
Emporos has published a new whitepaper called "The Essentials to Growing Your Business with Retail POS Technology" to help you succeed!
Click here to download it now.
Here are a few quotes:
Once the POS software is in place, most merchants tend to jump in and start right away using the technology. However, without taking the time to define the business objectives, they may only grasp a few benefits from the software.
The two big benefits realized by connecting the POS to pharmacy are keeping the staff informed and making patients happy.
Inputting price changes manually is the old way and time consuming. Having the ability to load price changes directly from your wholesaler into your POS via the Internet is an increasingly common way to handle this task.
Customer service is the critical element that makes the difference. One way to provide superior service is with careful inventory management.
That's right, one of the features of the health reform bill is that many OTC medications will no longer be tax-exempt, meaning ineligible for FSA/HRA/HSA card purchases, starting January 1, 2011. As a pharmacist, you'll want to advise your customers of this impending change and suggest they use their Flexible Spending Account (FSA) dollars before December 31 to stock up for the cold/flu season. Some may elect to take this one step further by increasing their prices on these items in the fourth quarter, knowing customers will be motivated to buy.
What type of items will no longer be eligible? General cold/flu/pain medications such as Tylenol and Advil. The only way these items can be purchased with an FSA card is with a doctor's prescription.
What will still be eligible? Non-medical or drug items such as contact lens solution, gauze, bandages.
How will this affect your Emporos point of sale system? We will automatically update your system's Eligible Items List on January 1, 2011, or as soon as the data is provided to us by SIGIS.
For more information about the list of items ineligible and the List update, read SIGIS' press release.