I participated in a meeting this week with the co-CEOs of the newly merged RxHub and SureScripts, the two large PBM-based prescribing data companies, about promoting e-prescribing. This merger will turn out to be a good thing — the combined company has over 80 percent of the prescribing data in the private sector. But the meeting reflected the current difficulties and barriers that prevent moving forward on improving adherence and prescribing safety and efficiency. Frustrating data interface glitches still plague the environment.

So, if you get e-Rx software and systems, you can e-prescribe. That’s great. It is helpful and more efficient. But, if you also expected to be able to get medication history on the patient in front of you to see what they are currently taking, that’s not going to be so easy if they’re not in your EMR system already and exclusively. Every EMR requires a different interface and software for RxHUB-SureScripts to get that info out. And most EMRs are not designed to accomplish this interface effectively anyway. These companies have the data and are willing to get it out, but you won’t likely see it until a lot of other system changes are made. 

But, as a result of these kinds of discussions, I can see ways of getting Congress and the insurers to set some incentives out there that will facilitate getting the interfaces built and adopted. Nothing is easy here; but we need to keep pushing and pushing. This will save dollars and, more importantly, lives. I recently advocated for the adoption of HIT in the Baltimore Sun's opinion section. I can't stress enough how important it is for practitioners to adopt this technology.

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