Business
E-prescribers merge
NEWS IN BRIEF — Posted July 21, 2008
The country's two main e-prescribing networks have merged in a cashless deal that both companies hope will result in an increased use in e-prescribing.
RxHub, founded in 2001 by drug benefit managers CVS Caremark Corp., Express Scripts Inc. and Medco Health Solutions Inc., will join forces with SureScripts, founded in 2001 by the National Assn. of Chain Drug Stores and the National Community Pharmacists Assn., to form a single nationwide network for e-prescribing and a patient health information exchange.
The new organization will combine RxHub's expertise in patient identification and the delivery of drug benefit information with SureScripts' expertise in electronic prescribing, the companies said. The combined organization expects to transmit 100 million electronic prescriptions and extend its services to more than 200 million patients and their physicians this year.
Both organizations will retain 50% ownership in the newly formed company, which will remain privately owned. The company will be known as SureScripts-RxHub until a new name is chosen.
Note: This item originally appeared at http://www.ama-assn.org/amednews/2008/07/21/bibf0721.htm.
