SureScripts, RxHub merge, create single e-prescription network

Officials from SureScripts and RxHub, two electronic prescription networks, on Tuesday will announce their merger in an effort to promote greater adoption of electronic prescribing by physicians, the Washington Post reports (Goldfarb, Washington Post, 7/1).

The merger combines SureScripts' electronic drugstore routing system and RxHub's insurance information database of more than 200 million insured patients (AP/Wall Street Journal, 7/1). The merged network, called SureScripts-RxHub, will allow doctors to send prescriptions electronically and review insurance coverage and patients' drug histories. There is no per-prescription cost for physicians or patients under the service.

Slow To Adopt

According to the Post, physicians have been slow to adopt the technology because of "weak incentives for doctors to buy the necessary equipment, legal roadblocks and privacy concerns." Only 2% of the 1.5 billion annual prescriptions are submitted electronically to pharmacies, the Post reports. The SureScripts-RxHub merger comes as legislation moves through Congress that will give financial incentives to doctors who invest in and use the technology and the Drug Enforcement Administration considers ending its ban on e-prescriptions for many controlled substances.

The merger is a "marriage of rivals," as the two companies currently compete for prescriptions, the Post reports. RxHub is owned and run by two drugstore industry trade groups. SureScripts is owned by the drug benefit managers CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions, which are the top mail-order companies (Washington Post, 7/1).

Comments

John Driscoll, president for new markets at Medco, said, "This merger sets aside historic economic and political differences to do what is necessary to advance paperless prescribing and the secure exchange of critical information" (AP/Wall Street Journal, 7/1).

John Halamka, chief information officer of Harvard Medical School, said that, while the merged entity might raise privacy concerns, "[a]s long as the data is used properly -- it won't be resold [and] the patient can say 'I don't' want to participate' -- then these are good developments." Sean Wieland, a health technology analyst at investment back Piper Jaffray, said, "A standalone e-prescribing system is really just on the road to a full electronic medical record" (Washington Post, 7/1).