COLUMBUS, Ohio and KANSAS CITY, Mo., Aug. 20, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Cerner, a global leader in health care technology, and CoverMyMeds, the nation's leading electronic prior authorization (ePA) platform, have announced an agreement to integrate CoverMyMeds' ePA within Cerner's Millennium® EHR. The advanced functionality will provide more than 350,000 e-prescribing end users the ability to accelerate the prescription review process by removing manual processes and help reduce transaction costs.
ePA is the process of automating and expediting prior authorization (PA), which is used to determine patient benefit coverage for prescribed medications. The traditional PA process is paper-based and reliant on faxes and phone calls to connect health care professionals. CoverMyMeds will provide Cerner physicians the capability to process requests electronically in seconds and receive notification of a patient's authorization status within minutes.
"Integrating CoverMyMeds within Cerner's EHR provides physicians access to a modern and efficient authorization process with fewer phone calls between doctors and pharmacies. We believe increasing interoperability among pharmacies, prescribers and facility systems will help improve the delivery of health care," said Kashif Rathore, senior director of interoperability, Cerner.
According to a 2012 study by the Center for Health Transformation, PA and other medication formulary requirements are significant contributors to the cost of provider interaction with health plans, which exceeds $100 billion annually. The study also showed beyond the health care costs, PA requests can delay patient treatment and result in prescription abandonment.
"Our mission is to help patients get the medications they need to live healthier lives," said Matt Scantland, CoverMyMeds Co-Founder. "By adding ePA to the Cerner workflow and supporting near-real-time approvals through our ePA integrations with the largest payers, we turned what used to be an exception process into a decision support tool. The result is doctors can make informed decisions about what medication to prescribe for a patient and send a prescription to the pharmacy confident their patient will receive the medicine they need."
CoverMyMeds' integrated ePA capability will be available to Cerner clients in 2016. More integration details can be found at https://cerner.covermymeds.com/.
About Cerner
Cerner's health information technologies connect people, information and systems at more than 18,000 facilities worldwide. Recognized for innovation, Cerner solutions assist clinicians in making care decisions and enable organizations to manage the health of populations. The company also offers an integrated clinical and financial system to help health care organizations manage revenue, as well as a wide range of services to support clients' clinical, financial and operational needs. Cerner's mission is to contribute to the systemic improvement of health care delivery and the health of communities. On February 2, 2015, Cerner Corporation acquired substantially all of the assets, and assumed certain liabilities, of the Siemens Health Services business from Siemens AG. Nasdaq: CERN. For more information about Cerner, visit cerner.com, read our blog at cerner.com/blog, connect with us on Twitter at twitter.com/cerner and on Facebook at facebook.com/cerner.
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About CoverMyMeds
CoverMyMeds is the leader in Electronic Prior Authorization (ePA), and one of the fastest growing healthcare technology companies in the U.S. Our technology integrates with pharmacy systems, EHRs, and PBMs to create the most efficient ePA strategy for all participants. With millions of ePA requests automated each month, CoverMyMeds is the only vendor using the NCPDP ePA standard at scale. For more information, visit www.covermymeds.com.
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