RxHub Accomplishments

ON February 23, RxHub announced its accomplishments for the past year (2006) and the plans for the coming year. Quoting from the press release (this writer's comments are in blue text):

in 2006:

• Access to more than 160 million patient prescription information records for consenting patients, via payers and PBMs, through the growing list of RxHub certified technology partners. Contracts with payers and PBMs were executed representing additional access to more than 50 million patients though RxHub.
• An increase in transaction volumes of 50% from 29 million transactions in 2005 to more than 43 million transactions in 2006. These transactions were real-time requests for patient eligibility and benefits, formulary, and medication history information, made at the point-of-care in the ambulatory and acute care settings from clinicians across the United States. (blogger note: 43 million transactions - but there were over 3 billion scripts filled last year)
  
• A ten-fold increase in true electronic prescriptions, which includes the transmission of patient-specific clinical decision support information at the point of prescribing, to retail and mail order pharmacy locations of the patient’s choice. (note: the % of true eRx still is estimated to be well under 5% of total transactions)
  
• Involvement in three of the four nationwide health information network (NHIN) prototypes defined by the Department of Health and Human Services, Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
• Participation in four of the five year-long ePrescribing pilots that were funded by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in collaboration with the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ). RxHub provided the underlying infrastructure for the pilots to test a variety of e-prescribing standards, including RxHub’s medication history and formulary and benefits standards that were made available to the industry last year. The pilots also tested a new standard for electronic prior authorization (ePA) and a new use of electronic prescribing standards to meet the unique needs of the long-term care environment. All pilots have successfully completed their obligations and submitted final reports, which identify successes as well as opportunities for improving the ePrescribing process.
  

During 2007, RxHub will address these opportunities through focus groups, workgroups, product enhancements, and standards development.

Their proposed activities for this year include:

• RxHub will actively continue the growth of PBM and payer participation and expand its current Master Patient Index (MPI) coverage to more than 200 million covered lives which will increase the already impressive value it brings to the prescribing industry as well as the patients it represents nationwide. (note: Since the American population is just around 300 million, does this really mean that the participating plans cover 2/3 of the people in the United States? It would be interesting to know how many duplicates are in these data)
  
• RxHub will conduct a partner satisfaction survey to poll participants on current services and additional offerings necessary to enable further physician adoption of ePrescribing.
• RxHub will host the Second Annual RxHub Symposium focused on payer sponsored ePrescribing initiatives and pay-for-performance programs in the United States. Results of the findings and outcomes will be published following the Symposium in May.
• RxHub has retained the services and expertise of Maria Friedman as part of the RxHub team focused on Public strategies related to electronic prescribing. Dr. Friedman is a former senior advisor to CMS.
• RxHub is in the final stages of receiving full accreditation by the Electronic Healthcare Network Accreditation Commission (EHNAC). This milestone reinforces the dedication to quality RxHub strives for in its daily operations and provides partners with continued commitment to excellence.