throughout the entire system. Surescripts’ focus on
quality is setting the standard in health information
exchange by aiming to achieve 100 percent reliability
of e-prescribing—from the time a prescription is first
contemplated and electronically generated by a prescriber
to the time the medication is received by the
patient from the pharmacy.
Besides eliminating the need to interpret handwriting,
e-prescribing improves the quality of the
prescribing process by providing access to critical
information at the time the prescription is first being
considered by the prescriber. This includes the ability
to instantly review both the patient’s prescription
benefit information and medication history. Access
to the former can save a patient and the health care
system money, while the latter can save a patient’s life
by helping to prevent adverse drug events.
But e-prescribing goes beyond impacting the quality
of individual prescriptions. It creates the means
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identifying and making improvements to the prescribing process nationwide in a way that is simply
not possible with paper. Because of e-prescribing, the
U.S. now has what amounts to a national air traffic
control system for prescriptions. This is made possible
by a nationwide network for e-prescribing that
can monitor quality in a way that has never been
done before.
In a paper prescribing world, you cannot and
therefore do not know when something systematically
goes wrong with the prescribing process until
months or years later, when a researcher takes the
time to gather and study data in order to estimate,
for example, just how many adverse drug events
occur each year. And while this type of research is
important, it is too slow to be actionable. The goal
is to shrink the time between when a problem in
the prescribing process is identified and when it is
resolved. In the paper world, many problems are
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The Academy in May was recognized as a member
organization of URAC, an independent health care
accreditation, education and measurement organization.
AMCP joins a distinguished group of organizations
that are working with URAC to improve the
quality of health care delivery and management.
URAC’s diverse member organizations represent consumers,
providers, employers, health plans, care management
organizations, regulators and industry experts.
“[AMCP’s] involvement will add an important
perspective in working to meet URAC’s mission to
promote continuous improvement in the quality and
efficiency of health care management,” Alan Spielman,
URAC President and CEO, said in a May 6 letter to
AMCP confirming the URAC Board’s action.
Judith Cahill, Executive Director of AMCP, responded
that the Academy looks forward to “working constructively
with other organizations represented on the
URAC Board in order to advance effective patient care
practices and quality measures.”
In addition to AMCP’s designation as a member
organization, the URAC Board of Directors approved |
current AMCP Treasurer John Jones, Senior Vice
President of Professional Practice & Pharmacy Policy at
Prescription Solutions, as the Academy’s representative
to URAC’s Board of Directors. URAC also appointed
Jones as Vice-Chair of the Board.
AMCP and URAC have had a long working relationship.
Academy leaders have helped in the development
of URAC’s groundbreaking standards for PBMs,
which were released in 2006, and other pharmacy
quality programs.
Other URAC member organizations include
the American Association of Preferred Provider
Organizations, American College of Physicians,
America’s Health Insurance Plans, American Health
Quality Association, American Hospital Association,
American Insurance Association, American Medical
Association, American Nurses Association, American
Psychiatric Association, Blue Cross and Blue Shield
Association, Case Management Society of America,
National Association of Insurance Commissioners,
National Business Coalition on Health and the
Pharmaceutical Care Management Association.  |
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