Effective November 1, 2007 software applications for medication management employing point of care technology is afforded special treatment for cost reporting periods beginning July 1, 2007. Characteristics of point of care technology include software applications installed on medication carts allowing point of care based medication management. The allowable cost of software and associated hardware (used exclusively for this application) required to operate a point of care software application will be treated as direct care cost for cost reporting purposes. All costs associated with the point of care application must continue to meet all allowable cost principles as defined in Chapter 3 including capitalization requirements. Chapter 4-A and Chapter 4-B of the state Manual of Cost Reimbursement Rules for Long Term Care Facilities dated July 1, 1999 include specific instructions on how these costs will be reported on provider cost reports.