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January 19, 2006
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey Joins New Jersey E-Prescribing Action Coalition
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey Joins New Jersey E-Prescribing Action Coalition.
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey Joins New Jersey E-Prescribing Action Coalition
http://www.drugnewswire/1611/
January 19, 2006 - 11:55 AM
By DrugNewswire
NEWARK, N.J. — In a project proposed by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and announced today by Secretary Mike Leavitt, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey (Horizon BCBSNJ) will partner with The RAND Corporation (RAND) to test electronic prescription drug technology as part of the New Jersey E-Prescribing Action Coalition.
Last year, as part of a $5 million Health Connections initiative, Horizon BCBSNJ was among the nation's first health insurers to fund the acquisition of the e-prescribing technology, including software, a PDA, a printer, related hardware, and installation, for a number of its network physicians. Horizon BCBSNJ's e-prescribing initiative includes 1,000 physicians who can transmit patient prescriptions to local pharmacies via secure Internet connections.
The New Jersey E-Prescribing Action Coalition is an industry-academic partnership involving RAND Health, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey and the e-prescribing vendors AllScripts, Caremark iScribe, and InstantDx. Other partners are: the electronic prescription routing companies RxHub and SureScripts; Caremark's mail-order pharmacy; Walgreen's retail pharmacies; and Point of Care Partners, a consulting group that has led standards development efforts for electronic prescribing.
"Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey is delighted to be participating in this study to evaluate and improve industry standards for e-prescribing technology to improve its effectiveness and safety for patients," said Richard Popiel, MD, MBA, vice president and chief medical officer of Horizon BCBSNJ. "As participant in the New Jersey E-Prescribing Action Coalition, we hope to forge stronger relationships with doctors and pharmacists to understand how this new technology can improve patient safety."
The $1.85 million project will evaluate standards for electronic prescribing proposed by HHS for transmitting prescriptions and related information electronically between doctors and pharmacies. The evaluation will include those standards for transmitting patient medication histories, lists of drugs covered by insurance companies, and benefit information. In addition, the effort will evaluate standards for informing physicians when a prescription is filled, obtaining prior authorization for certain medications from insurance plans, standardizing patient instructions and other technical issues. The standards may improve patient care and reduce medication errors by simplifying the review of patient drug histories and by standardizing patient instructions, among other things.
The project is supported by a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality as part of an effort to test e-prescribing standards proposed for Medicare. The new Medicare Part D drug plan for seniors encourages physicians to transmit new prescription and refill requests electronically.
RAND Health is the nation's largest independent health policy research program, with a broad research portfolio that focuses on health care quality, costs and delivery, among other topics.
Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey, with headquarters in Newark, is New Jersey's largest health insurer providing coverage to more than 3.2 million people. Horizon BCBSNJ's company Web site is located at http://www.horizonblue.com/ . Horizon BCBSNJ is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. To sign up for RAND e-mail alerts: http://www.rand.org/publications/email.html
Source: Horizon
CONTACT: Tom Rubino, +1-973-466-8755, trubino@horizonblue.com
Web site: http://www.horizonblue.com/
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