NCPDP Reports Three Key Areas of Progress, Connecting Healthcare in 2012
SCOTTSDALE, AZ--(Marketwire - Feb 4, 2013) - NCPDP announces it made significant progress in 2012, connecting healthcare in three main areas of focus: patient safety, education and leadership, and standards development.
Focus on the patient
NCPDP has a 30-year track record of rallying industry stakeholders to address patient safety issues. Among its achievements in 2012 are progress in compelling industry compliance with its recommendations for protecting patients from accidental acetaminophen overdose, and developing recommendations to minimize adverse events and patient harm from dosing errors associated with people using kitchen "teaspoons" to administer medicines.
Industry education and leadership
NCPDP expanded its education initiatives deeper into the healthcare information technology arena, hosting a series of HIMSS Town Hall meetings to share best practices, the tremendous progress it has made within the pharmacy services sector, and demonstrate how its progress has benefitted medical counterparts as well, in the drive to improve healthcare quality and lower costs. The organization also produced a strong program of webinars and educational summits, and increased its exposure in the policymaking arena through its newest program of "EDvocacy," bringing education and real world experience together to inform and influence.
Healthcare industry stakeholders including government agencies turned to NCPDP as the go-to forum to address a record number of issues in 2012. Some of the issues for which NCPDP held focus groups: biopharma, prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMP), managed care claims processing for pharmacist-administered immunizations and standardized Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS). While focus groups are foundational to NCPDP's collaborative, consensus based standards development process, it is also part of the organization's methodology for leading the exploration of all healthcare industry issues.
Standards development
The standards development process continued with rigor in many areas, including approval of new standards for electronic communication for medication therapy management (MTM) and managed care claims processing. Other standards in process target fraud and abuse for PDMP, simplifying the process of electronic prior authorization (ePA), and enhancing the telecommunication standard in support of REMS.
"Year after year we continue to bring the healthcare industry together and drive it forward to improve patient safety and healthcare delivery," stated Lee Ann Stember, President of NCPDP. "We are already executing against our 2013 goals and look forward to sharing our progress at our upcoming 2013 Annual Technology and Business Conference."
For more information on NCPDP's 2013 Annual Technology and Business Conference, visit http://www.ncpdp.org/meetings_ac.aspx.
About NCPDP
Founded in 1977, NCPDP is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited, Standards Development Organization with over 1,600 members representing virtually every sector of the pharmacy services industry. Our diverse membership provides leadership and healthcare business solutions through education and standards, created using the consensus building process. NCPDP has been named in federal legislation, including HIPAA, MMA, and HITECH. NCPDP members have created standards such as the Telecommunication Standard and Batch Standard, the SCRIPT Standard for e-Prescribing, the Manufacturers Rebate Standard and more to improve communication within the pharmacy industry. Our data products include dataQ®, a robust database of information on more than 76,000 pharmacies, and HCIdea®, a database of continually updated information on more than 2.3 million prescribers. NCPDP's RxReconn® is a legislative tracking product for real-time monitoring of pharmacy-related state and national legislative and regulatory activity. For more information about NCPDP Standards, Data Services, Products, Educational Programs and Work Group meetings, go online at www.ncpdp.org or call (480) 477-1000.
