Business
Illinois rolls out e-prescribing
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted March 12, 2007
A collaboration representing physicians, hospitals, insurers, businesses and others has announced a program to roll out electronic prescribing in Illinois.
BlueCross BlueShield of Illinois says it will cover the cost of setting up 500 physicians with the e-prescribing technology. It will use transaction fees for the service to pay for member physicians' ongoing participation as well as the entry of new physicians.
Rockville, Md.-based DrFirst Inc., will give physicians the e-prescribing system, a handheld computer, wireless networking hardware, training and support. DrFirst will also preload each doctor's system with patient demographics to ease the transition from paper to electronic prescribing.
Physicians will be able to check a patient's eligibility, co-pay and formulary information, along with the patient's history, allergies and medications. Prescriptions would then be sent directly to the patient's pharmacy, reducing waiting time as well as callbacks to physicians.
The organizations involved in this collaborative effort include the Midwest Business Group on Health, Chicago Patient Safety Forum, Illinois Academy of Family Physicians, the Illinois chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Illinois Foundation for Quality Healthcare, Illinois State Medical Society, Illinois Dept. of Healthcare and Family Services, Illinois Hospital Assn. and Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2007/03/12/bibf0312.htm.
