Moving towards electronic transfer of prescriptions
The first step towards introduction of electronic
transfer of prescriptions (ETP) should be establishing electronic claims
processing, according to RICHARD MULCAHY, managing director, Systems Solutions.
Electronic claims processing is in operation in 65 per cent of community
pharmacies in the Republic of Ireland and runs on Systems Solutions software.
It will eventually be introduced into all pharmacies.
Mr Mulcahy explained that the prescription data
are captured electronically from a pharmacy’s existing computer system
meaning that no large outlay of money is needed for new computer equipment.
The data are encrypted and sent monthly to the the Irish equivalent of
the Prescription Pricing Authority. Pharmacists are reimbursed within
14 days of the end of the month. This contrasts with up to five months
when data were submitted by paper, he said.
The benefits of electronic claims processing are
that no central processing is required by the Irish PPA, pharmacists know
what they will be paid when the data are submitted, they are paid more
quickly, and the need to code prescriptions is eliminated, said Mr Mulcahy.
The fact that the Irish PPA did not have to spend time entering prescription
data onto a computer (because they are submitted electronically) means
that staff have more time to spend on tackling fraud, he added. In terms
of prescription items for which payment is not allowed, he explained that
a set of rules automatically highlights disallowed items to pharmacists
electronically.
Mr Mulcahy added that he suspected that the reason
electronic claims processing had not been introduced in the United Kingdom
was that the PPA perceived it as a threat, particularly towards staff
jobs.
A trial of ETP will now be added onto the electronic
claims processing system. The trial will begin in March next year. Discussing
issues surrounding ETP, Mr Mulcahy said that he preferred the relay model
because it gave patients a grater choice over which pharmacy they wanted
to get their prescriptions from. ETP gave benefits to all stakeholders:
the general practitioner, the pharmacist, the patient and the government,
he said.
For the pharmacist, a reduction in time spent on
computing and endorsing would mean more time available to spend on patient
management. Because the system involves electronic claims processing,
the pharmacist would know accurately how much payment to expect which
was useful from a business perspective. GPs would also benefit from a
reduction in administration costs. In addition, there was potential for
repeat dispensing to reduce workload at the surgery. He explained that
GPs could place three or six month’s worth of repeat prescriptions on
the ETP server (in the relay model) and then the pharmacist could pull
a prescription from the server when requested.
Patients benefited from better management and less
likelihood of medication errors (because of no need to read doctor’s handwriting).
For the government, ETP would be financially beneficial. It would help
to reduce fraud, reduce administration costs at the PPA and, in the long
term, reduce health costs through better patient management. ETP would
also provide fast access to epidemiological data so that an occurrence
of an unusual disease or infection could be highlighted quickly.
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