Physicians serving the Medicaid population in Michigan and Vermont will now be able to access each state's Medicaid preferred drug list through their ePocrates Rx™ drug reference guide - Contracts and Alliances in Brief - Brief Article

Drug Cost Management Report, Jan, 2003

* Physicians serving the Medicaid population in Michigan and Vermont will now be able to access each state's Medicaid preferred drug list through their ePocrates Rx(TM) drug reference guide. As a result of a recent contract awarded to ePocrates Inc. by First Health Services, the pharmacy benefits administrator for the Michigan and Vermont Medicaid programs, physicians can have easy access to any Medicaid preferred drug list by using a hand-held device, helping to assure that patients are receiving the proper medication in their therapeutic drug class.

The Michigan and Vermont Medicaid PDLs are the first Medicaid fee-for-service preferred drug lists to be included in the ePocrates Rx system. More than 40% of all physicians in Michigan and Vermont use the ePocrates Rx system, a popular drug reference used by nearly 300,000 physicians. Meanwhile, the state of Washington recently signed a two-year contract with ePocrates to put its 950,000 fee-for-service clients on the hand-held system. Washington's Medical Assistance Administration (MAA) is spending more than $1 billion every two years on prescription drugs, according to Doug Porter, assistant secretary of the MAA, who hopes the system will control drug costs in the coming year. Porter noted that almost 5,000 physicians in Washington, about 38% of the total, have been using ePocrates. Information: Lydia Green, RPh, ePocrates Rx, (650) 227-1703; Doug Porter, MAA, (360) 725-1867.