Business Services Industry

RxHub Commends the Leadership of HHS and CMS in Launching Program to Boost Physician Adoption of Electronic Health Records

Business Wire, Oct 30, 2007

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- RxHub([R]) today commended the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) for launching a pilot program to recruit and pay bonuses to 1,200 physicians nationally to remove the paperwork from their medical practice in return for higher Medicare payments.

HHS and CMS announced the launch of a five-year pilot program that will recruit and pay bonuses to 100 physicians in each of 12 target communities to use electronic health-record systems and e-prescribing. This is "the largest step yet" toward boosting physician adoption of electronic health records (EHRs), according to CMS' acting Administrator Kerry Weems.

Secretary Mike Leavitt billed the project as one of the administration's most important steps yet toward meeting President Bush's goal of nationwide adoption of EHRs by 2014. Many health analysts believe that widespread use of electronic health records will reduce medical errors and could potentially slow soaring health care expenses. Yet, only about 10 percent of doctors in solo or small-group practices use this technology.

Tom Groom, Senior Vice President of Business Development for RxHub, attended the government-sponsored meeting today with key stakeholders in Cincinnati, OH. The meeting, Connecting You to Better Health: Advancing 21st Century Medicine with Electronic Health Records, was held at Good Samaritan Hospital. "We applaud the leadership provided by Secretary Leavitt, Administrator Weems, HHS, and CMS for their efforts in launching this innovative program," stated Groom. "RxHub is able to fully support this program by providing electronic connectivity to real-time prescription information for more than 180 million Americans and provide the medication history information that is a key building block of EHRs."

The pilot program will utilize EHRs that are tested and approved by the Certification Commission for Healthcare Information Technology (CCHIT). CCHIT is a recognized certification body in the United States for certifying health information technology products and is an independent, nonprofit organization that tests EHRs against criteria for functionality, interoperability, and security. RxHub is supporting this effort as a pre-approved network to assist CCHIT in the validation of electronic prescribing related criteria.

Last year the Institute of Medicine urged all physicians to begin using ePrescribing in order to prevent the 1.5 million medication errors that occur each year. ePrescribing is perhaps the most effective and underutilized tool that American healthcare offers to improve patient safety, reduce costs and eliminate wasteful paperwork. By connecting authorized physicians electronically to their patient's health records, it empowers physicians to know three things vital to patient safety and drug affordability:

1. ePrescribing informs physicians if a drug being prescribed would interact harmfully with other drugs - including those prescribed by other doctors - that a patient is already taking;

2. ePrescribing shows physicians and patients the full range of clinically safe drug and pharmacy choices available so that, together, they can make the most effective and affordable choice on a case-by-case basis;

3. ePrescribing eliminates illegible handwritten prescriptions that pharmacists and others can so easily misinterpret, often with unfortunate results.

RxHub is a universal ePrescribing solution for the nation. The RxHub National Health Information Network[TM] connects authorized physicians and pharmacists to critical prescription information for consenting patients at the point of care. This information enables clinicians to effectively manage the patients' use of medications and counsel patients on safe and affordable choices before prescriptions are electronically transmitted to retail and mail order pharmacies. RxHub is contracted to provide vital patient-specific prescription information for more than 200 million Americans - representing over 90% of the commercially covered lives in the United States.

About RxHub LLC

RxHub[R] (www.rxhub.net) manages the RxHub National Patient Health Information Network[TM] which electronically routes up-to-date patient-specific medication history and prescription benefit information to caregivers at every point of care. Our end-to-end solution enables physicians to prescribe the most clinically appropriate and cost effective prescription and send it electronically to the patient's pharmacy of choice. Operating as a cost recovery business model, RxHub partners with stakeholders in the prescribing industry to improve patient safety, increase workflow efficiency and reduce the overall cost of health care delivery. For more information on RxHub Certified Partners, please visit: http://www.rxhub.net/partners.html.>