First-of-its-kind electronic medical history program gets funding from Horizon Blue Cross

NEWARK, N.J. Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey will invest up to $500,000 in certain network hospitals to help with the costs of implementing an electronic medical history program. This is the first insurance company to invest in this hospital program.

The program will be administered through RcopiaAC MedHx by DrFirst, which will send an electronic medical history request to sources like RxHub, SureScripts when a patient is admitted into a hospital. When the medication history information is found, it will be submitted to the hospital in real time. The expectation is that eventually, such programs will be used by in-store retail clinics and pharmacies, as well.

One hospital already using the program is Chilton Memorial Hospital, where BCBSNJ is providing 85 percent of the costs for the technology up to $40,000.

“We believe Chilton Memorial Hospital will experience an immediate impact on their workflow through utilization of the RcopiaAC system to access patient medication lists. The patient’s medication history will help the hospital avoid omissions, duplications and interactions that may lead to medication errors or adverse drug events and will reduce administrative costs,” said G. Cameron Deemer, president of DrFirst.

As many as eight network hospitals, which will receive varying amounts of investments, are expected to join the program by the end of 2008.