E-prescription network Surescripts has named Frank Harvey its CEO, effective June 27. He is succeeding Tom Skelton, who last year announced his decision to retire.
Arlington, Virginia-based Surescripts is owned by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS), National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA), CVS Health and Express Scripts.
Under Skelton’s tenure, Surescripts launched Real-Time Prescription Benefit, which the company said now has more than 550,000 prescribers using it in their electronic health record to access benefits-based prescription price information at the point of prescribing. The company also focused on improving the accuracy of electronic prescriptions, increasing the efficiency and simplicity of sharing health intelligence to improve care.
Harvey is a pharmacist and has held numerous senior leadership roles during his more than 35-year career in the healthcare technology, pharmacy and pharmaceutical sectors. Harvey joins Surescripts from ATLS Investments LLC, where he led private equity investing in healthcare technology companies. Previously, he served as CEO of Mirixa Corp. and Liberty Medical Supply Inc.
“Frank is a results-oriented leader with strong operational skills, and extensive experience growing healthcare businesses,” said Douglas Hoey, co-chair of Surescripts’ board of directors, in a statement. “Frank combines his unique perspective and depth of experience with a passion for improving the lives of patients and evolving the healthcare system.”
Surescripts is still involved in a federal antitrust suit with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. The FTC sued Surescripts in 2019 for alleged anticompetitive practices in the e-prescribing market. An April 26 Reuters story noted that the FTC and Surescripts “can't agree on what penalty should be imposed on the health information network to settle a federal antitrust lawsuit,” according to an agency court filing.
Here are some highlights from the company’s 2021 National Progress Report:
• Use of e-prescribing increased from 84 percent to 94 percent of all prescriptions, and from 58 percent to 73 percent of controlled substance prescriptions. Surescripts saw a 10 percent network-wide improvement in its Quality Index Score, which measures factors that could impact the prescribing process like increase patient safety, reduce time spent in fax and phone call follow-up.
• Use of Surescripts Medication History by providers in population health programs increased 53 percent, and use of medication history for patient intake, hospital admission and care coordination increased 21 percent. Use of Clinical Direct Messaging increased 81 percent, with 143 million clinical direct messages sent and received last year. Surescripts Record Locator & Exchange was utilized by more than 197,000 clinicians to exchange clinical history, an increase of 44 percent over 2020.
• Pharmacies used Clinical Direct Messaging to send 16 million COVID-19 vaccination notifications to primary care providers. Pharmacy enablement for CancelRx increased to more than 88 percent and enablement for RxChange, to reduce back and forth between pharmacists and prescribers, increased to more than 73 percent.
