In an effort to make prescription medications safer and to improve the quality of care in Illinois, BCBSIL has implemented a statewide, collaborative program that will unite the health care industry and expand e-prescribing throughout Illinois.
The Illinois e-Prescribing Collaborative is the first of its kind in the nation, as insurers, technology vendors, pharmacies, employer groups, physicians and other organizations involved in the prescription process are working together to increase the use of e-prescribing.
This unique program creates value to all parties in the prescription process:
- Patients
- Physicians
- Pharmacies
- Employers
- Health Care Plans
Benefits:
With access to the e-prescribing software through a PDA or desktop computer, physicians can:
- Check eligibility, co-pay and formulary information at the point of care
- Gain access to patient drug history to enable physicians to prescribe the appropriate medication by verifying patient’s allergies and checking for possible drug interactions
- Send prescriptions directly to the patient’s pharmacy
- Reduce patient waiting time as well as callbacks to physicians for changes or clarifications.
- Increase generic utilization as well as formulary compliance as a result of cues displayed by the program that would inform the physician of alternatives to brand name drugs.
Key Statistics in Massachusetts:
- In 2006, 4.5 million electronic prescriptions were sent by eRx Collaborative prescribers, a 73% increase from 2005
- In December 2006, more than 8600 prescriptions were changed as a result of drug-drug or drug-allergy ePrescribing alerts and a total of 88,000 prescriptions were changed in 2006
- E-Rx prescribers in Massachusetts have sent 7.8 million electronic prescriptions through 2006.
Vendors:
DrFirst - http://www.drfirst.com
ZixCorp
- http://www.zixcorp.com
Frequently Asked Questions
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