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NCPDP ANNOUNCES NEW COLLABORATION WITH SURESCRIPTS

Effort will enhance HCIdea and simplify prescription routing for pharmacies by helping them to more easily recognize which physicians ePrescribe

March 02, 2009

Scottsdale, AZ The National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) today announced a collaboration with Surescripts that will allow pharmacies to more easily recognize which physicians in their community use ePrescribing. By including regular updates from Surescripts in its prescriber information service, NCPDP is helping to simplify ePrescribing for thousands of pharmacies and physician offices across the country.

With ePrescribers incorporated into NCPDP’s HCIdea™ (available to pharmacies and others via a subscription agreement), pharmacists can use their pharmacy system to automatically determine which physician offices are capable of electronically routing new prescriptions as well as electronically processing prescription renewal requests. Surescripts updates are also available on the HCIdea web Lookup Tool available at www.hcidea.org.

"In 2008, the number of ePrescribers more than doubled in the U.S. – growing from 35,000 to approximately 75,000," stated Bob Beckley, Senior Vice President for Alliances and Product Strategy for Surescripts. "As these numbers continue to grow, the need for a simple method of updating prescriber information at the pharmacy has become clear. This collaboration between NCPDP and Surescripts will meet this need and, in doing so, dramatically increase the number and frequency of pharmacies using ePrescribing to electronically process prescription renewals.

By automating prescription routing, ePrescribing has been proven to offer significant savings in time and money for both physicians and pharmacists. According to researcher Michael Rupp, efficiency gains from ePrescribing can save pharmacies $1.07 for every new prescription and $0.41 for every renewed prescription managed electronically. According to a survey of participants in the Massachusetts eRx Collaborative, 71 percent of prescriber respondents say ePrescribing saves time, with the majority saving one hour to two hours per day.

"We've had so many requests from the industry to incorporate the Surescripts information into our services," explained NCPDP President, Lee Ann Stember. "This enhancement not only allows us to provide even more value back to HCIdea subscribers, but improves the ePrescribing experience for all."

 For more information about HCIdea and the online Lookup Tool, please visit www.hcidea.org.

About NCPDP

Founded in 1977, NCPDP is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited, Standards Development Organization with about 1600 members representing virtually every sector of the pharmacy services industry.  Our diverse membership provides leadership and healthcare business solutions through education and standards, created using the consensus building process.  NCPDP has been named in federal legislation, including HIPAA and the MMA.  NCPDP members have created standards such as the Telecommunication Standard and Batch Standard, the SCRIPT Standard for ePrescribing, the Manufacturers Rebate Standard and more to improve communication within the pharmacy industry.  Our data services include NCPDP dataQ, the trusted source for intelligent pharmacy data and HCIdea, the prescriber identity solution.  For more information about NCPDP Standards, Database Services, Educational Programs and Work Group Meetings, go online at www.ncpdp.org or call (480) 477-1000.