Content about Electronic prescribing

CVS Caremark will launch a pilot of a 
real-time, integrated electronic prior authorization capability, available to its pharmacy benefit management clients, to help speed access to prescription medications.


WOONSOCKET, R.I. — CVS Caremark announced on Monday that it will be launching a pilot of a real-time, integrated electronic prior authorization capability, available to its PBM clients, to help speed access to prescription medications.

LAS VEGAS — Walgreens’ increasing use of mobile technology platforms is transforming the way the company reaches patients and is expanding its ability to deliver health services via smart phones and other devices, a Walgreens official asserted Friday.

Speaking at the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show’s Digital Health Summit this morning, Walgreens chief medical officer Cheryl Pegus laid out the ways the health services and retail pharmacy giant is leveraging technology to make personal health management easier for patients.

WOONSOCKET, R.I. — There is a direct correlation between the amount of a patient's out-of-pocket co-pay and prescription abandonment, according to the findings of a CVS Caremark-sponsored study published this week in the Annals of Internal Medicine. The study also found that e-prescriptions are more likely to be abandoned at retail compared with handwritten prescriptions.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Since the turn of the 21st century, community pharmacy and its technology allies have waged a long fight to shift the nation’s fractious healthcare system to a common communications and record-keeping platform via electronic prescribing and information technology. Those efforts -- led by such companies as Surescripts, the pharmacy industry-founded e-prescribing network -- have made progress.

ALEXANDRIA, Va. In a new plea to Congress, the chain pharmacy industry renewed its support for the rapid nationwide adoption of health information technology as a major tool in the nation’s drive to improve patient compliance with medication therapy.

DETROIT In honor of its dedication to driving the adoption of e-prescribing technology in Michigan, the Southeast Michigan ePrescribing Initiative was presented with the 2010 Health Information Technology Innovation Leadership Award at the first annual Michigan HIT Leadership and Innovation Awards reception.

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Now, it’s up to the doctors.

(THE NEWS: DEA allows controlled drug e-prescribing, handing pharmacy advocates a key victory. For the full story, click here)

WHAT IT MEANS AND WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Efforts by retail pharmacies and pharmacy groups to spur the adoption of electronic-prescribing technology among the nation’s technology-averse physicians are nothing new. Nor are collaborative campaigns that enlist pharmacies and technology vendors. But a joint campaign to speed e-prescribing by a pharmacy benefits manager and a health insurer? That’s a far less frequent occurrence.