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February 11, 2005
Firms Want e-Scripts, but
Firms Want e-Scripts, but Docs Pay
(February 09, 2005) Detroit’s three automakers have joined forces with insurers and vendors to encourage physicians to use electronic prescribing technology. General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and DaimlerChrysler Corp. will share lessons learned in the Southeast Michigan e-Prescribing Initiative with federal officials and regional organizations working to create a national health information network.One of those lessons may be whether the funding mechanism of the initiative is successful. The companies will offer physicians unspecified financial incentives--such as a partial reimbursement--to adopt e-prescribing, but will not outright pay for the software, hardware such as personal computers or PDAs, or transaction fees.
The level of reimbursement or other incentives has not been determined, but the automakers have set aside millions of dollars for the program, according to a DaimlerChrysler spokesperson.
Program sponsors believe if physicians have made an investment on their own, they will be more inclined to use the technology, adds a spokesperson for Medco Health Solutions, a pharmacy benefit management firm that coordinated the initiative for the automakers.
The automakers are working with two regional insurers--Health Alliance Plan and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan--and have invited other payers to join the initiative. The companies hope to expand the initiative to other U.S. regions where they have a large presence of employees.
Under the initiative, physicians can choose their hardware and software vendors. The electronic networks of RxHub LLC and SureScripts Inc. will be used to link prescribers, pharmacy benefit management firms and pharmacies. Electronic prescription software vendors participating in the program include Allscripts Healthcare Solutions, DrFirst Inc., HealthRamp Inc. and Zix Corp.
RxHub will send formulary and drug utilization review data from three major pharmacy benefit management firms--Medco, Caremark Rx and Express Scripts--back to prescribers. RxHub also will send mail order prescriptions to the appropriate PBM for filling, and other prescriptions to retail pharmacies though SureScripts.
Henry Ford Health System in Detroit is the pilot site for the initiative and is using DrFirst's Rcopia e-prescribing software. About 25 physicians went live in January and the four-hospital delivery system expects 100 users by the end of the first quarter.
Because e-prescribing already was an initiative underway at Henry Ford, the delivery system is paying the technology costs for physicians who practice in its hospitals and clinics
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