Successful e-Prescription Pilot Program Expanding Outside of Florida
Humana, a major health insurance carrier based in Louisville, Kentucky, has had so much success with e-Prescription pilot programs in Florida and Texas that it is now planning to expand the program to other states, including its home state of Kentucky.
Currently, approximately 2,000 doctors are using the free services, called CarePrescribe, across Florida and Texas.The service allows them to access the network pharmacies of their patients, and quickly transmit any needed prescriptions right to the pharmacy. Patients can opt to use a mail-order pharmacy with the services as well.
Other than the obvious convenience benefits, physicians and patients enjoy others as well:
It allows doctors to access a patient’s network pharmacy list and transmit prescriptions electronically to the patient’s retail or mail-order pharmacies of choice. It also offers physicians real-time access to patients’ medication history; drug and allergy interaction checks; and benefit eligibility, formulary and copayment information.
We tend to agree with the following statement from William Fleming, VP of Humana Pharmacy Solutions:
“We’re going to continue driving the adoption of e-prescribing technology because there is a tremendous opportunity to reduce medication errors, improve medication adherence, and impact overall costs.”
CarePrescribe was created by a company called Availity, which was co-founded by Humana and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Florida in 2001.
We are curious to know if any of you have been utilizing e-prescription services, or have implemented other cost-saving plans to help with the ever-rising cost of providing health insurance benefits for your business…or if you are an employee utilizing such services, we’d like to hear from you too! Please let us know.