The ROI of E-Prescribing

The health care consulting firm Visante Inc. recently surveyed the body of research on e-prescribing’s cost effectiveness. Their Impact Analysis found that e-prescribing increases the use of generics and lower-cost drugs, increases adherence to prescribed medications, reduces medical errors, and prevents hospitalizations. Specifically, they found that:

1. E-prescribing results in a 1-4% reduction in drug spend
2. Full adoption of e-prescribing could avoid 35% of preventable adverse drug events
3. Avoiding adverse drug events could reduce emergency room, hospital, and physician costs by 0.05%
4. E-prescribing overall could reduce ER, hospital, and physician costs by 0.25%

Click here for a full copy of the report.

Our own experience has shown measurable value as well for our health plan partners. One field study found a 1.6% increase in generic drug utilization, and an average cost reduction of $1.52 per prescription written based on formulary compliance and Tier 2 to Tier 1 conversion (via implicit generic substitution).

It is common for a single medication switch to result in a savings of over $70 per month. For patients on long-term therapies, the present value of this switch can be hundreds, if not thousands, of dollars over the lifetime of their membership with your plan.

Contact us for a collaborative consultation on how to model the return on your investment.