'Zero-Click eCoupon' automates coupon delivery from physician to patient

Making it easier to connect patients with co-pay coupons and other forms of patient assistance is probably the last thing that insurers and PBMs—who dislike their effect on drug formularies and step therapies—want to hear, but for the pharma industry, there will be value in the partnership between Physicians Interactive (PI; Marlborough, MA) and Allscripts (Chicago), one of the leading e-prescribing platforms. With the branded eCoupon program, users of Allscripts’ standalone e-prescribing technology will automatically see coupons available for the drug being prescribed. (Allscripts also has a significant business in electronic health records [EHR] systems; the implication here is that the standalone e-prescribing system could reach into non-Allscripts EHRs.) PI claims access to 875,000 prescribers through its online and mobile offerings—which is just about 100% saturation of the active prescribing audience.

PI and Allscripts emphasize that the coupon availability fits neatly into the workflow of the busy doctor, who might be at the e-prescribing page to complete a scrip, and can now offer assistance to the patient at the same time. "PI's eCoupon fits directly into an existing workflow to give practitioners more efficient ways to select and distribute medication coupons and vouchers during the prescription process that can help reduce patient costs at the pharmacy and potentially improve overall compliance," said Donato Tramuto, CEO of PI. The ability to align coupon availability with medication adherence programs could be a factor in meeting the “meaningful use” requirements that health systems have to justify favorable treatment from CMS, which is encouraging broader EHRR use nationally.

Trumato also notes that eCoupon will generate transactional data that can be reported back to manufacturers who will want to track the progress of their patient assistance programs.