Highmark eHealth Collaborative Selects DrFirst Rcopia for Participation in $26.5 Million Initiative | DrFirst

Rockville, MD—DrFirst, creator of the award-winning Rcopia® electronic prescription management system, announced today that it has been selected to participate as a registered vendor in the Highmark eHealth Collaborative. The Highmark eHealth Collaborative, which operates as a charitable fund of The Pittsburgh Foundation, was established through a $26.5 million contribution from Highmark Inc., one of the nation’s largest health insurers. This new venture was created to promote the adoption of health information technology to improve patient safety, reduce costs and improve the overall quality of care in the delivery of prescription drug benefits in the state of Pennsylvania. Western and Central Pennsylvania physicians are eligible to apply for grant funding to acquire, install, and implement an e-prescribing system through a registered vendor, such as DrFirst. Providers will be sponsored for up to 75 percent of the cost of the system, up to a maximum of $7,000 per physician.

“DrFirst is excited to participate in this new program that will increase patient safety with cost-efficient health information technology. We hope to add thousands of physicians and staff users in Pennsylvania to our already market-leading Rcopia service” said Peter N. Kaufman, M.D., Chief Medical Officer at DrFirst.

Established in 2000, DrFirst is committed to improving healthcare and patient safety by delivering technologies that enable medical professionals and their staffs to quickly and easily access critical medical information at the point of care. DrFirst is strategically partnered with SureScripts, RxHub, FirstDataBank, Per Se Technologies, Epocrates and many others, to ensure that their clients have access to the most reliable and up-to-date information and services. DrFirst is the recipient of many industry awards, including Top Honors at the 2004/2005 TEPR conference, the Qualcomm 2005 3G A-List Award, and the 2005 Frost & Sullivan “Healthcare Technology of the Year” award. DrFirst is exclusively endorsed by the Massachusetts Medical Society.

DrFirst’s Rcopia is a standalone electronic prescribing system that manages the prescription writing process electronically by connecting physicians to critical patient information and key health care stakeholders at the point of prescribing. Rcopia is also able to tightly interface with other systems such as electronic medical record (EMR) and practice management systems (PMS). Physicians can use DrFirst Rcopia via the Internet and on handheld devices. True mobility, delivered through Rcopia PDA, allows physicians anytime/anywhere access to patient information and prescription writing functionality without the need for a continuous Internet connection.

About Highmark eHealth Collaborative

Highmark eHealth Collaborative is not a subsidiary of Highmark Inc. It is a supporting organization of The Pittsburgh Foundation funded by a major contribution from Highmark Inc. For more information about the Collaborative, visit www.highmarkehealth.org. Highmark Inc. is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross and Blue Shield Association, an association of independent Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans. For more information about Highmark, visit www.highmark.com.

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