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New Mexico's Health Quality Improvement Organization |
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E-Prescribing Pilot The New Mexico Prescription Improvement Coalition (NMPIC) is charged with encouraging e-prescribing to address patient safety and rising prescription costs, which in turn provides quality, cost effective health care to patients. The Health Information and Technology (HIT) Workgroup approved a statewide e-prescribing strategy and work plan to promote the adoption of e-prescribing to enhance medication therapy management in New Mexico. A statewide, physician-centric, multi-payor, self-sustaining, electronic prescribing model is currently in the pilot phase. To assure adoption, all major health plans are participating in the program. Health plans’ formularies will be loaded into the e-prescribing applications for ease of physician access. Implementation costs of this pilot are being funded by participating health plans, based on New Mexico member enrollment for each plan. More than 120 physicians are participating in this pilot to date.
NMPIC also hosted four demonstrations of e-prescribing solutions in December 2006; participating vendors were Allscripts, DrFirst, Relay Health, and ZixCorp. Interested providers evaluated proposed solutions and chose the vendor that met their needs. (To access online (WebEX) recordings of the demonstrations, click here.) The next steps are to develop contract language for providers and begin implementation. The first of two phases, implementation for providers using Allscripts and Relay Health, is currently underway; the second phase, involving implementation using DrFirst and ZixCorp and is expected to begin in May 2007. |
NMPIC held its first e-prescribing forum in September 2006 in Albuquerque. The forum was a tremendous success, drawing more than 80 attendees, who represented health care providers, managed care organization representatives, hospital and health care administrators, product vendors and champions in health information technology. For more information on this forum,