E-Prescribing
Integrated workflows ease staff burden and satisfy regulatory mandates.
When you order dinner via an app on your phone, you can track it. You know when the restaurant receives the order, see when the delivery driver picks it up, and watch on a map as it travels to you. If only prescriptions—especially those that require prior authorization—were that easy.
“It’s kind of sad that we have more visibility into whether our pizza is done than whether our prescriptions are approved,” John Lynn, editor and founder of Healthcare IT Today, said during a recent podcast interview with Colin Banas, M.D., M.H.A., Chief Medical Officer of DrFirst.
Dr. Banas agreed, calling the “pizza tracker” a perfect analogy for the kind of transparency that’s lacking in the e-prescribing prior authorization process. Notifications sent to patients and providers about where the request is within the workflow will make it possible for providers to close the loop, he added.
In addition to talking about problems with prior authorization, Lynn and Dr. Banas explored dealing with disparate data, how EHR and HIT vendors can answer the build vs. buy question, and medication adherence for population health. Read on for the highlights.
Disparate Data Muddies Medication Management
With data “all over the place,” as Lynn puts it plainly, “medication management is hard.”
And not only is medication data spread out across care settings, Dr. Banas said, but the quality of that data is also all over the place.
He added that while we’re not at the “magic wand stage” where prescribers know whether the patient is actually taking a medication, they can see whether a prescription is being picked up from the pharmacy and how often it is refilled.
ACOs and Population Health for Medication Adherence
When talking about value-based care success, like record payouts to ACOs, it’s important to focus on medication adherence. That’s because getting patients to start and stay on therapy can really “move the needle” toward better clinical outcomes and lower readmissions, according to Dr. Banas. It also leads to improved star ratings from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), he said.
Build vs. Buy: The Age-Old Question in Health IT
Lynn and Dr. Banas also took on “one of the most interesting questions out there.”
As a former CMIO at Virginia Commonwealth University Health, Dr. Banas said he often wrestled with whether the health system should develop or purchase technology solutions. Answers to the question shifted as technology advanced at a breakneck speed and compliance got more complex.
“As new requirements enter the scene, it makes sense to look to someone who has a real expertise in that space, particularly since interoperability and the openness of some of the EHRs has really started to blossom,” he said.
Considering Maturity When Deciding Whether to DIY
A particular technology’s maturity informs whether to develop a solution or partner with someone who has already mastered it. Lynn shared with Dr. Banas a conversation he had with an innovation leader at Epic.
“He said, ‘You know, John, the maturity of the product is what really indicates when we should build it ourselves or not. In the case of ambient clinical voice and AI medical scribes, those products are really mature. So, could we try to catch up with that? Yeah, we could. But why should we if we could just integrate that solution? We have enough other things to do.’”
Dr. Banas said he tells people: “We’ve been doing this for 25 years…you guys have other things to worry about. Let us take this on for you."
To see the full conversation, click here for episode 154 of the Healthcare IT Today podcast.
