Casting for the Cure

Have you ever looked at your handwritten prescription and wondered just what it was you were supposed to be taking? Well, imagine the pharmacists trying to decipher their way through literally thousands of these per year. The Institute of Medicine reports that 1.5 million people in the United States are injured or die each year from preventable medication errors that cost the health care system as much as $3.5 billion.

With the push from the United States government, health insurers, and private business groups encouraging doctors and patients to put more information online, two of the country’s largest electronic-prescription networks—once rivals competing for prescription sales—have merged in a cashless transaction. SureScripts, owned by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and National Community Pharmacists Association and RxHub, owned by CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions—the leading mail-order companies—have creating a single, secure network for the exchange of digital health information.

The new entity, under the temporary name, SureScripts-RxHub, will be manage jointly by Rick Ratliff, acting chief executive officer of SureScripts, and J.P. Little, acting chief executive officer of RxHub, until new management and a new name can be secured. Through pharmacy benefit managers, the new merger will have access to 200 million patient records and about 70 percent of all drugstores in this country. The merged network expects to transmit 100 million paperless drug orders this year, which would nearly triple the present number of digital prescriptions written in the United States.

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The country’s two largest electronic-prescription networks Tuesday announced a merger, creating a single, secure network for the exchange of digital health information.

In a cashless transaction, which closed late Monday, RxHub LLC, a joint-venture of pharmacy-benefit managers, CVS Caremark Corp., Express Scripts, Inc. and Medco Health Solutions, Inc., will combine its operations with SureScripts, a private company founded by the National Community Pharmacists Association and the National Association of Chain Drug Stores. The merger isn’t subject to antitrust review because the fair market value of the combined entity isn’t high enough, according to the companies.

The owners of RxHub and SureScripts will each retain a 50% stake in the new venture, which will initially go by the name SureScripts-RxHub, LLC, according to executives from the two companies.

The initiative is the latest in a flurry of recent moves that are likely to speed the adoption of paperless prescriptions, seen as a useful but little-used tool. The health care industry aims to shift from costly, error-prone paper prescriptions to more streamlined electronic methods that have the potential to improve patient safety and reduce the cost of care, but which also raise questions about the security and privacy of patient data.

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