For those of you that provide ambulatory prescription services, CMS is testing its eligibility and verification system in the month of December. Check the CMS website for more info. I attend an online seminar today, and was intrigued to discover that the pharmacy has to pay $0.015 per eligibility request. Also, if the patient says they are enrolled, you submit the claim and get reimbursed; you could end up having to recover lost funds if the person turns out not to be eligible.

Press Release Check out IntelliFill here. I personally do not know of anyone else that is using this technology. I am curious to see how the ROI compares to frozen or pre-made solutions. Surely the customized preparation is advantageous. Does anyone have experience with inpatient robotics for preparing intravenous solutions?

I attended the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Midyear Clinical meeting last week. Located in Las Vegas, it was sure to be a non-stop and exhausting experience. I tried to concentrate on making it to all of the Informatics related educational and forum meetings. I was pleased to see a large number of sessions. I had the best time at the Informatics Section Advisory Group meeting. We got an update from some key pharmacists in critical areas of Informatics. Most of them have residency programs for informatics, and are heavily involved in academics and lectures.

Article on Pharmalive Wow. This is dated technology. At a time when most institutions are looking at CPOE, ASB releases a fax-enhancement system that has been available from competitors for years. I am not impressed.

CIO Article
Another IT feel good article from CIO Magazine. The industry is really gearing up for healthcare. the lack of innovation and safety enhancing technologies is finally spurring a movement. Of course, healthcare professionals in technology areas have been complaining about this problem for decades. Finally someone is listening to us!

Defenselink Article I worked with the Military Health System on the CHCS II project when I was a Pharmacy Officer in the Navy. It was a great concept, but the GUI was very slow at the time. I am not sure how AHLTA inter-relates with CHCS II, but it is great news. I look forward to learning more about the system in the coming months. The devil is in the details....

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