WOONSOCKET, R.I. and CHICAGO, IL — January 7, 2010 –CVS Caremark (NYSE: CVS) today announced an agreement with Allscripts (NASDAQ: MDRX) that will position both companies to help accelerate adoption of e-prescribing technology. This agreement between the nation’s largest pharmacy health care provider and the largest provider of e-prescribing and Electronic Health Record (EHR) solutions will enhance the ability of CVS Caremark to support its payer and employer clients in driving e-prescribing adoption throughout their networks.
As part of this agreement, CVS Caremark will transition thousands of providers now using the company’s proprietary iScribe e-prescribing tool to Allscripts e-prescribing and retire iScribe. Considered the “on-ramp to the electronic healthcare highway,” e-prescribing often serves as a first step toward adoption of a full EHR, which provides e-prescribing capabilities while also automating the everyday clinical tasks of caregivers and connecting them to key healthcare stakeholders.
Under the agreement, iScribe users will also have the opportunity to transition to a full Allscripts EHR, enabling them to qualify under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for between $44,000 and $64,000 in federal incentive payments beginning in 2011. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services already provides financial incentives for e-prescribing under the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA).
As adoption of e-prescribing technology and EHRs increases in response to these significant federal incentives, CVS Caremark will focus its efforts at the point-of-care. That work will include initiatives with market leaders such as Allscripts to deliver enhanced information about plan design, drug formulary, generic options, potential drug interactions, and eventually care plans to providers at the point-of-care to help improve quality, ensure safety and provide the most cost-effective treatment protocols. CVS Caremark’s goals are to promote savings for the patient, payers and employers; enhance the customer experience at the pharmacy; and improve patient medication compliance which can help improve health outcomes.
Given CVS Caremark’s ability to enhance pharmacy health care at multiple touch-points, the company is well-positioned to take the lead at developing and implementing new programs and initiatives that help deliver the right information to guide physician and caregiver medication decision making at the point-of-care.
“This represents a natural progression of our work in the expanding e-prescribing industry,” said Troyen Brennan, M.D., M.P.H., Executive Vice President and Chief Medical Officer of CVS Caremark. “We helped define this market through our participation as one of the founders of the Surescripts network which connects prescribers to critical prescribing information and the pharmacy, and as an early provider of e-prescribing tools. Working directly with Allscripts in this next phase will strengthen our ability to deliver scalable e-prescribing solutions, which include valuable information, to meet our clients’ business and clinical goals.”
The agreement with Allscripts, along with a broader ePrescribing and eHealth strategy involving the two companies, increases the ability of CVS Caremark to reach prescribers beyond that provided by investment in a single clinical tool. Allscripts offers physicians in independent practice and in larger groups or institutions a wide variety of solutions to meet their needs, ranging from a standalone mobile smartphone e-prescribing solution to robust EHR with embedded e-prescribing technology.
