(Washington, DC)— The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) issued the following statement applauding Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s (D-NY) July 22nd call for a national, uniform electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) standard:

“PCMA strongly supports Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton’s call for legislation
creating a national, uniform e-prescribing standard. Senator Clinton has a
long-standing commitment to expanding the use of information technology
to improve our nation’s health care system, and her support and understanding of the benefits of e-prescribing to reduce costs and improve quality is consistent with that effort.

“America’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) have been at the forefront of
efforts to implement e-prescribing throughout the entire health care system.
E-prescribing can help increase adherence to drug regimens and provide
patients with information about more safe and cost-effective options, including generic drugs and the mail-service pharmacy option. Regrettably, as Senator Clinton herself has noted, a key barrier to implementing e-prescribing lies with a Medicare standard that sometimes conflicts or duplicates 50 separate state e-prescribing laws currently on the books.

“A bipartisan consensus is emerging that a national, uniform e-prescribing
standard is long overdue. This past Thursday, in a landmark report, the
Institute of Medicine (IoM) issued a set of recommendations for
identifying and preventing medication errors, including a call for all prescriptions to be written electronically by 2010. These common-sense reforms have been lauded by policymakers across the political spectrum, including Senate Finance Committee Chairman Charles Grassley (R-Iowa), as well as by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS).

“Numerous data suggest that e-prescribing can save the health system tens
of billions of dollars. Public and private purchasers — including small
businesses, Fortune 500 employers, federal and state employee-benefit
plans, labor unions and Medicare and Medicaid — all stand to benefit
from the increased use of e-prescribing that would result from a national,
uniform standard.”

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PCMA is the national association representing America’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which administer prescription drug plans for more than 200 million Americans with health coverage provided through small businesses, Fortune 500 employers, health insurers, labor unions, and Medicare.

Contact Information:
Phil Blando 202-207-3614
Charles Coté 202-207-3605