Merger Spells e-Prescribing Success for FPs

Effective July 1, RxHub and SureScripts, the nation's two largest electronic prescribing, or e-prescribing, networks, consolidated their operations to become SureScripts-RxHub. The merger forms a "single, secure nationwide network" for e-prescriptions and bodes well for family physicians.

"We believe this merger has a lot of potential and will be a good thing for our members," said Steven Waldren, M.D., director of the Academy's Center for Health Information Technology.

According to a press release from the companies, RxHub and SureScripts both were founded in 2001, the former by pharmacy benefit management companies and the latter by associations representing chain drug stores and pharmacists. RxHub delivers patient drug and formulary information to the physician; SureScript's focus is e-prescription routing from the physician to the pharmacy.

The merger combines the two companies' strengths "to form a single suite of comprehensive services," said the release. The combined organization expects to transmit 100 million electronic prescription transactions in 2008 and will respond to nearly 70 million requests by physicians about their patients' drug formularies and medication histories.

Rick Ratliff, Co-CEO of SureScripts-RxHub, said in an interview with AAFP News Now that the two companies have always worked with the same health information technology vendors. Both companies' management teams realized they were duplicating their efforts and "decided it was time to come together, take these two networks and combine them to deliver a single, secure nationwide network," said Ratliff. The bottom line is to "get to that paperless prescription process much faster," he added.

Within months, physicians should notice speedier access to mail-order pharmacies and enhanced patient formulary information, said Ratliff. The network's medication history information program lets physicians see what medications other physicians have prescribed and whether or not patients picked up those prescriptions from the pharmacy.

Waldren said the consolidation benefits extend beyond physicians. "This merger will simplify the technology that EHR (electronic health record) vendors have to deal with to get physicians up and running," because vendors will work with one network and one set of EHR specifications, he said.

As a single network, SureScripts-RxHub runs the risk of charges of monopolization of the market, said Waldren. But he said he doubts any related legal action would be taken by the federal government in light of its efforts to encourage the growth of e-prescribing.

Ratliff pointed out the network does not charge physicians for its services, and he promised "incremental progress" as the two companies begin the hard work of combining their operations. "By mid- to late next year, physicians will really start to see the true value of the integration and merged companies," he said.

In time, "the merger will improve the way physicians e-prescribe in their practices," added Waldren.