BOSTON and DALLAS, Jan. 22, 2008 (PRIME NEWSWIRE) -- Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) and Zix Corporation (ZixCorp(r)), (Nasdaq:ZIXI), the leader in hosted services for email encryption and e-prescribing, today announced that they will begin jointly conducting a pilot of disease management enrollment alerts through ZixCorp's PocketScript(r) e-prescribing service. The disease management enrollment feature alerts physicians via PocketScript at the point of care that the patient may be eligible for enrollment in a BCBSMA disease management program.
A powerful benefit of the disease management alert feature involves bringing the patient's established healthcare provider into the disease management decision-making process, so that the patient has access to a trusted resource who can explain the benefits of such programs, address any concerns and generally answer questions on managing the disease. In addition, having the alert at the point of care also takes advantage of the face-to-face interaction, which should facilitate a more efficient enrollment process.
Furthermore, BCBSMA clinical teams will benefit from the early notification of potential disease management program enrollee eligibility, thus eliminating the need to wait for a claims cycle before contacting members. Allowing earlier identification saves the clinical coaching team valuable time in the progression of the disease and allows the patient to be approached when they may be most motivated to enroll in a disease management program.
"Together with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, we believe that the country's largest e-prescribing network can be leveraged to provide additional value to the prescribers, further increase patient safety and reduce overall healthcare costs to payors, physicians and patients," said Rick Spurr, Chief Executive Officer of Zix Corporation. "In this new application our PocketScript service will allow the BCBSMA disease management team to engage physicians and patient members with chronic conditions at the point of care, allowing the timely intervention with the patient to help avoid potentially more expensive complications caused by the progression of poorly controlled diseases. The disease management feature is an example of how e-prescribing can be the platform for introducing the benefits of healthcare IT to physicians, especially those in smaller or rural practices that otherwise don't have access to such technology. The ZixCorp model has had particular success in getting adoption of e-prescribing by these smaller practices."
"ZixCorp's Disease Management functionality extends our care management programs that improve our members' health by mastering the day-to-day management of their conditions," said Steven Fox, Vice President Provider Relations and Communications. "Like all of our care management programs, this new tool supports the physician-patient relationship in following the members' treatment plan."
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts reduced pharmacy costs associated with high volume e-prescribers by 3.0 percent to 3.5 percent due to those high volume e-prescribers changing to more cost-effective drugs. Members on average saved $20 to $25 for each electronic prescription changed to a preferred brand or generic.
ZixCorp's PocketScript e-prescribing service enables physicians to order prescriptions through a secure wireless mobile PDA or secure Web site and deliver them electronically to the patient's preferred pharmacy. Mobility enables PocketScript to provide clinical decision support at the point-of-care with real-time access to a drug reference guide as well as patient-level eligibility, formulary, and co-pay information to aid the prescriber in selecting the most cost-effective prescription based on the patient's benefits. The application also provides comprehensive drug-to-drug and drug-to-allergy interaction alerts based on patient-specific dispensed drug history. Through partnerships with RxHub, RelayHealth and SureScripts, PocketScript delivers end-to-end connectivity within the healthcare system to reduce unnecessary costs, improve patient safety and convenience, and enhance practice efficiency.
About Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (www.bluecrossma.com) was founded 70 years ago by a group of community-minded business leaders. Today, headquartered in Boston, BCBSMA provides coverage to more than 3 million members. BCBSMA believes in rewarding doctors and hospitals for delivering safe and effective care, and in empowering patients to take more responsibility, become educated health care consumers, and become stronger partners with their doctors. Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
About Zix Corporation
ZixCorp is the leading provider of easy-to-use-and-deploy email encryption and e-prescribing services that Connect entities with their customers and partners to Protect and Deliver sensitive information in the healthcare, finance, insurance and government industries. ZixCorp's hosted Email Encryption Service provides an easy and cost-effective way to ensure customer privacy and regulatory compliance for corporate email. Its PocketScript(r) e-prescribing service saves lives and saves money by automating the prescription process between payors, doctors and pharmacies. For more information, visit www.zixcorp.com.
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