Tenn. Medicaid Launches E-Rx Pilot

HDM Breaking News, March 20, 2008

The Bureau of TennCare, the state of Tennessee's Medicaid program, is working with Shared Health, a health information exchange in the state, on a pilot program that will provide 50 rural physicians with free electronic prescribing technology.

The program is designed to help facilitate more efficient, improved patient care across Tennessee. The sponsors also plan to analyze its results to determine patterns, behaviors and user satisfaction with electronic prescribing technology across different practices, specialties and locations.

The four-month pilot will offer participating physicians access to electronic prescribing software from Allscripts, Chicago; Internet connectivity technology; and training and support. Physicians also will have access to a medication database, automatic prescription histories, real-time notification of formulary status for TennCare and other payers, automated drug interaction information, dosage levels and patient-specific information.

The pilot began in early March and will run through June 30. Within 30 days of its conclusion, TennCare and Shared Health will examine participating physicians’ use patterns to determine features that are most useful to rural physicians. The effectiveness of the program will be measured by:

*Comparing prescription patterns for participants before and after implementation;
*Measuring the percentage of prescriptions with prior authorizations;
*Examining trends in the use of generic prescriptions;
*Evaluating attitude changes; and
*Measuring the level of provider satisfaction.

TennCare and Shared Health also will use this analysis to determine whether the pilot should be expanded.

For more information, go to sharedhealth.com.

For more information on related topics, visit the following channels:

• Decision Support
• Electronic Health Records
• Health Information Exchange
• Medication Management
• Hospitals
• Group Practices