Service Improves Patient Safety, Efficiency
June 30 - MINNETONKA, Minn. - Medica today announced it has become the first Minnesota plan to make e-prescribing available to all members. E-prescribing allows a physician's office to transmit a prescription electronically to a patient's pharmacy, enhancing patient safety and transaction efficiency. While some providers currently have the capability to electronically prescribe medications, Medica's new service provides additional benefits.
E-prescribing allows a physician to check whether a patient has pharmacy benefit coverage with Medica, look up which drugs are covered by a patient's prescription drug benefit plan and whether a medication requires prior authorization, and view information about medications a patient already is taking -- including those prescribed by other providers. Making this information available is intended to help reduce the number of adverse drug events, screen for drug interactions, and reveal drug-disease compatibility for the provider.
"E-prescribing is fast becoming standard practice and Medica is pleased to make an enhanced version available to benefit all of our members," said Dr. Thomas Becker, Medica medical director, care management. "We believe this will improve patient safety and help create a better health care experience for our members and the providers who choose to use it."
For providers and patients, e-prescribing:
- Causes less confusion over handwritten prescriptions or unclear phone calls;
- Reduces the possibility of medical errors, as the software may show important information like drug interactions and prescription history;
- Offers a safer, faster, more convenient way to write prescriptions, helping to achieve efficiency in delivery of healthcare services;
- Gives a point-of-care response to providers regarding formulary status of a medication for a specific Medica member; and
- Allows them to send prescriptions electronically to most pharmacies in the U.S.
Medica made e-prescribing available to its Medicare Part D members in April 2009, and to Minnesota Health Care Program recipients last fall. Since it was first implemented, the number of unique providers using e-prescribing has grown to more than 800 a week. During that time, there have been more than 500,000 transactions for 116,000 Medica members.
Medica's support of e-prescribing activity is facilitated through an agreement between SureScripts and MedImpact, Medica's pharmacy benefit manager.