Working with regional insurers, Nashville-based SilverScript Insurance plans to offer access to its iScribe e-prescribing software at no charge to 10,000 physicians. The program is being rolled out to physicians, nurse practitioners and physician assistants in New York, New Jersey, Texas, Virginia, Maryland, Florida and Tennessee. Participants get no-cost access to both Web and PDA-based prescribing functions. Other providers can access the Web service for free, but must pay for the PDA software. The technology allows doctors to review patient drug histories, send prescriptions directly to pharmacies, respond to refill requests online and automate prescribing tasks. By creating the program, SilverScript, a subsidiary of pharmacy benefit manager Caremark Rx, hopes to encourage more of physicians to adopt e-prescribing technology.
In kicking off this program, SilverScript has become one of a growing number of insurers, government organizations and other stakeholders shining a spotlight on e-prescribing. The efforts have been fueled by the results of an Institute of Medicine study, which suggested that e-prescribing could dramatically reduce the number of annual preventable drug errors in the U.S. The IOM recommends that the industry shift to digital prescriptions by the year 2010.
For more background on the pilot:
- read this article from the San Antonio Business Journal
- check out Caremark's press release
ALSO: Albany's Capital District Physicians Health Plan, which is working with SilverScript on the pilot for its region, is offering physicians iScribe, a PDA, a WiFi router and technical assistance. Article