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Specialty Pharmacy

Demonstrate the success of your pharmacy’s outcome-based patient care programs and services with our Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation.

NABP’s Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation is a 3-year accreditation for pharmacies providing an advanced level of pharmacy services and disease management for patients taking medications that require special handling, storage, and dispensing requirements. With an overall emphasis on quality and safety, we review patient management, drug quality management, and regulatory compliance. Our accreditation team and educational resources are available to help you on your path towards accreditation.

Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation is for:

  • Specialty/mail order pharmacies, hospitals/health systems, pharmacy chains, and independent community pharmacies that meet eligibility criteria.
  • Pharmacies that provide pharmacist-coordinated patient education and training, such as promoting adherence and appropriate use of complex, specialty medications.
  • Pharmacies that want recognition for demonstrating quality patient care that meets NABP’s accreditation standards.

Whether NABP Accreditation is new for your business, or you are already NABP accredited and are looking to expand your portfolio, our processes simplify your journey toward Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation.

Seeking participation in the Optum Rx network?

Our Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation is approved by the Optum Rx Specialty Pharmacy Network. Read more about the recognition.

Our Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation standards recognize your high performance in these key areas:

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Patient Management

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Quality Management

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Regulatory Compliance

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Practices that demonstrate compliance and high-quality patient care can earn this voluntary accreditation and better position their business to patients. Complete the form to request more information.

What Our Specialty Customers Say

“Our NABP accreditation experience was fantastic. The surveyor was very knowledgeable and took the time to understand how our pharmacy operates. The NABP process is very collaborative and great to work with.”
Eric, Director of Specialty Pharmacy Operations, Oncology Specialty Pharmacy
“NABP’s suggestions added more safeguards and quality around general pharmacy practices.”
Curtis, Director of Specialty, Health System Specialty Pharmacy

Specialty Pharmacy Eligibility

To apply for an NABP accreditation, businesses must meet and maintain basic eligibility requirements. Review the Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation eligibility requirements below to determine if you are qualified to apply.

  • You are a licensed pharmacy operating in the United States, with current and active licenses in good standing, in all jurisdictions in which you are conducting business (unless licensure is not required by law).
  • You predominantly serve human patients (defined as veterinary prescription volume less than 20%). 
  • Your business location is not a personal residence.
  • You are operational in all activities for at least 30 days.
  • You have a licensed pharmacist (ie, responsible person/pharmacist-in-charge) in full and actual charge of the pharmacy operations, personnel, and compliance with federal and state regulations, laws and rules regarding the practice of pharmacy.
  • Your specialty pharmacy seeking accreditation is compliant with the following statements now or will become compliant with them during the course of the accreditation process:
    • The practice has an organizational infrastructure to support the provision of specialty pharmacy care.
    • The practice has appropriate documents and current licensure required of the specialty pharmacy practice.
    • The practice provides services that enable patient access to specialty medications.
    • The practice provides comprehensive benefits investigation, prior authorization assistance, and benefits coordination on behalf of the patients it serves.
    • The practice provides clinical management services.
    • The practice facilitates coordinated patient management through enrollment communications to patients and prescribers.
    • The practice implements a continuous quality improvement program.
    • The practice reports and evaluates quality outcomes and quality metrics to assess the effectiveness of patient care.

Accreditation Standards Overview

The Specialty Pharmacy Accreditation Standards Overview provides a brief introduction to the set of required pharmacy standards to achieve accreditation.

Learn How to Get StartedReview the steps you’ll need to take before submitting your application.
Icon of a notebook with a checklist Download the Accreditation Standards Overview