The Future of Electronic Prescribing Can Help Providers, Pharmacists, and Patients Manage Costs

For Melanie Marcus, Chief Marketing and Customer Experience Officer at Surescripts, the pharmacist is critical to the future of health care in America.

“We work with pharmacy at scale across the country, every day, with electronic prescribing,” Marcus said. “We’ve worked over the last 7 years to seriously improve the accuracy of a prescription so that when a pharmacist receives it, there are less phone calls and faxes back and forth with the physician to make sure they’ve got the right SIG or the right elements of the prescription.”

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Marcus spoke with Drug Topics at the 2024 National Association of Chain Drug Stores Total Store Expo, held August 17 to August 19, 2024, in Boston, Massachusetts.

Part of that work also includes using technology to mitigate issues around prescription costs. Through Surescripts, Marcus explained, medication costs based on a patient’s pharmacy benefit can be viewed by the prescriber, who can also see available therapeutic alternatives and their respective costs. “When the patient shows up at the pharmacy, we’re saving that pharmacist another set of phone calls or faxes back to the physician because they’ve sent a $100 prescription that the patient can’t afford,” Marcus said.

Ready to catch up on the rest of our conference coverage? Click here for more of our coverage of the 2024 National Association of Chain Drug Stores Total Store Expo.