Capital BlueCross Deploys End-to-End E-Prescribing Service

As the health insurance industry becomes more commoditized, more insurers are looking toward technological solutions to help provide added value to customers. In an effort to reduce errors, provide cost savings and add convenience, Capital BlueCross (Harrisburg, Pa.) is providing physician offices in Central Pennsylvania and Lehigh Valley with an electronic prescription service from Prematics (Bethesda, Md.)."The market is very competitive. Anything a health insurer can do to enhance member service and increase the ease of doing business is a positive when it comes time to acquire and retain business," says Kent Whiting, vice president, information technology at Capital BlueCross. "E-prescribing, because the pharmacy industry itself is highly automated already, is a good place to get started, with clear benefits."

E-prescription services are not an entirely new frontier, but maintenance and cost of investment issues have often discouraged medical providers from adoption.

Prematics has tried to overcome those past barriers to adoption by providing an easy-to-use tool and fully managed service supported by a physicians' network provider, says Prematics spokesperson Rochelle Woolley.

The Capital BlueCross initiative is provided to eligible physicians for free, with Prematics providing all hardware, software, connectivity and handling implementation, and ongoing service. "It's a lot different than the vendors out there that are selling hardware and software to physicians' offices and asking the offices to act as their own systems integrators," Whiting explains.

The Prematics ScriptTone electronic prescribing service provides physicians with up-to-date patient medication history and pharmacy benefit information, through a connection to RxHub, an industry network exchange. The end-to-end service will allow physicians to access claims-based patient prescription information and a patient's formulary at the point of treatment, via a handheld wireless device.

The initiative should cut down on errors by providing doctors with a more complete patient medication history that relies less on a patient's memory and a doctor's chart. Further, the ScriptTone service could help streamline the prescription process, which has grown increasingly complex with advent of multi-tiered formularies that encourage or even require the use of generic medications.

"Knowing there is a generic equivalent and that the patient's formulary may require the use of that generic is critical," says Barclay Fitzpatrick, vice president, corporate communications, Capital BlueCross. "You need a system like this to ensure that the intent of getting more cost-effective, but equally medically effective, medications is being fulfilled."