Medi-Cal (Sacramento, Calif.) and Texas Medicaid (Austin, Texas) have joined 16 other state and federally funded healthcare programs currently working with Epocrates to improve physicians' access to information by making preferred drug lists available online or via mobile devices.
According to Epocrates, physicians, patients and state health plans will incur the following benefits:
· Physicians can view a patient's health plan coverage during consultation, providing uninterrupted and higher-quality care.
· Eighty percent of physicians report the greatest benefits of having access to formulary information are saving time and/or reducing pharmacy callbacks (requests for new prescriptions or generic approval).
· Ninety percent of physicians report prescribing a lower cost alternative after using the formulary reference, which may lead to savings on state drug spending.
Epocrates serves as a platform for Medicaid and other health plans to deliver reimbursement information at the point of care, says the San Mateo, Calif.-based company.
