Wellpoint Learns From Earlier E-prescribing Failure

Computerworld - Wellpoint, a participant in the National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative, this week is set to disclose plans for a pilot electronic-prescribing project in Ohio.

This and other recent efforts by the Indianapolis-based insurer, which insures 34 million people through Blue Cross and/or Blue Shield plans in 14 states, have been largely shaped by a previous, unsuccessful foray into e-prescribing.

The earlier, $42 million project, launched in 2004, called for physicians to receive a free PC or handheld device along with access to e-prescribing software.

Despite the giveaway, “we didn’t see the [e-prescribing] volume we would have hoped for,” said Charles Kennedy, Wellpoint’s vice president of health IT. “Just giving away the service did not cause large numbers of physicians to want to use it.”

In its latest efforts, including the Ohio pilot to be launched today, Wellpoint is offering incentives for physicians to use the software, he said.

For example, doctors get a 1% increase in reimbursement rates for using e-prescribing software. They also get a higher rate for prescribing generic drugs, which the software can recommend, Kennedy added.

“Over time, you’ll continue to see us build incentives for the use of health IT [systems],” he said.

Wellpoint subsidiary Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield, also based in Indianapolis, will unveil the pilot e-prescribing project in two Ohio communities. The aim is to reduce medication errors, the insurer said.

Anthem said it will provide 100 physicians in the Dayton and Warren-Youngstown areas with free hardware and online access to software from RxHub LLC in St. Paul, Minn., that provides access to drug insurance coverage data.

Anthem said the program, which will also provide incentives to participating physicians, was prompted by its relationship with client General Motors Corp., which has numerous employees and retirees in the area.

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