New Population Risk Management Solution Improves Medication Adherence to Reduce Readmissions and Support Value-Based Care

Rockville, MD, March 7, 2022 – To support population health initiatives and improve patient outcomes, health technology pioneer DrFirst today announced the availability of MedHx PRM as part of its Medication Management Suite. MedHx PRM makes it easy for clinicians to identify patients for early intervention to help them stay on track with their medication therapy, reduce overall use of healthcare resources, and prevent the negative outcomes and costly penalties associated with hospital readmissions. DrFirst announced the new solution at ViVE, the healthcare technology event taking place March 6 through 9, 2022, in Miami Beach.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) imposed readmission penalties on 83% of hospitals in 2020, shining a light on the importance of intervening with high-risk populations before those patients end up back in their local hospital’s Emergency Department. Up to 25% of all admissions to hospitals and long-term care facilities are due to medication non-adherence, so technology that supports medication management and early intervention is vital to helping improve outcomes, quality, and cost as part of value-based care initiatives.

MedHx PRM is based on DrFirst’s award-winning MedHx, which streamlines medication reconciliation workflows by providing the most accurate and clinically actionable medication history for individual patients at hospital admission and in the Emergency Department. For population risk management, MedHx PRM scales individual prescription fill data to a population of patients to identify those who would benefit from targeted interventions.

The University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, an early adopter of MedHx PRM, reported a significant impact for patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) as the result of a pilot program. “For our Mobile-Integrated Health Community Paramedicine program, we were able to merge Epic Clarity data with MedHx PRM data and calculate first-fill rates for new medications,” said Olu Sokan, PharmD, Advanced Practice Pharmacist at University of Maryland School of Pharmacy. “Over a six-month study period, first-fill rates increased 10% for CHF patients and increased 15% for COPD patients. We also found medication adherence for our high-risk patient population improved for 60 days after the intervention.”

Using MedHx PRM and its built-in clinical analytics, clinicians can create panels of high-risk patients or import them from an electronic health record system, then easily identify those who are not adherent to medication therapies or recognize patterns of opioid abuse. Having visibility into medication history details and fill patterns can help clinicians have meaningful discussions with patients about the importance of following prescribed drug therapy.

“MedHx PRM provides a strong starting point for healthcare organizations interested in managing and monitoring medication adherence with groups of high-risk patients,” said G. Cameron Deemer, president of DrFirst. “For example, studies show that patients with hypertension who are non-adherent to their medications are five times more likely to be hospitalized. Early interventions with these patients, and keeping them on their drug therapy plans, can greatly reduce healthcare costs by avoiding readmissions and improving CMS Star Ratings.”

MedHx PRM uses a rolling 12 months of aggregated, interoperable medication history data from pharmacy fill and pharmacy benefit managers from Surescripts Medication History for Populations, as well as other sources, which include data from DrFirst e-prescribing solutions, patients, independently hosted payer records, and community pharmacies.

Learn more about MedHx PRM here.

About DrFirst

Since 2000, DrFirst has pioneered healthcare technology solutions and consulting services that securely connect people at touchpoints of care to improve patient outcomes. We create unconventional solutions that solve care collaboration, medication management, price transparency, and adherence challenges faced in healthcare. We unite the Healthiverse—the interconnected healthcare universe—by providing our clients with real-time access to the information they need, exactly when and how they need it, so patients get the best care possible. DrFirst solutions are used by nearly 325,000 healthcare professionals, including more than 120,000 prescribers, 70,000 pharmacies, 280 HIS/EHRs, and 1,500 hospitals in the U.S. and Canada. To learn more, visit www.DrFirst.com and follow @DrFirst.

###

Media Contact:
Katlyn Nesvold, Amendola Communications for DrFirst
715-559-0046
knesvold@acmarketingpr.com