Medco, Automakers and Michigan Health Plans Band Together to Create e-Prescribing Test Bed

Medco, Automakers and Michigan Health Plans Band Together to Create e-Prescribing Test Bed

Southeast Michigan e-Prescribing Initiative to Equip Thousands of Physicians with Technology Tools to Improve Safety and Reduce Costs

FRANKLIN LAKES, N.J., Feb. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Medco Health Solutions, Inc. (NYSE:MHS), in collaboration with the Big Three automakers and Michigan health plans, will coordinate one of the largest, employer-driven e-Prescribing initiatives to validate the impact of technology on improving patient safety and reducing prescription drug costs, the company announced today.

The Southeast Michigan e-Prescribing Initiative (SEMI) is a far-reaching electronic prescribing collaboration, spearheaded by General Motors, Ford Motor Company, and DaimlerChrysler Corp., that is designed to equip as many as 17,000 physicians with e-Prescribing technology tools. Medco, the pharmacy benefit manager (PBM) for these corporations, will leverage its vast experience with e-Prescribing technology to coordinate the implementation of the initiative across automakers, e-Prescribing technology vendors and southeast Michigan health plans.

"Medco has long championed e-Prescribing as a critical component of modernizing the prescription healthcare system. This initiative is an important step forward in the effort to improve patient safety and contain drug spending. As the pharmacy benefit manager for General Motors, Ford and DaimlerChrysler, we will continue to offer our expertise and support to these next-generation initiatives," said David B. Snow Jr., Medco's chairman, president and CEO.

The initiative encourages physicians to write prescriptions on a personal computer or wireless device and send them directly to the pharmacy for filling. Electronic prescribing provides physicians with real-time access to important safety and coverage information when making prescribing decisions.

The benefits of e-Prescribing include:

-- Reducing potentially harmful drug interactions by alerting physicians
of possible risks
-- Eliminating illegible physician hand-written prescriptions that can
lead to medication errors
-- Increasing the use of generics and preferred drugs by providing
physicians with formulary information when writing the prescription,
resulting in savings for both the patient and insurer
-- Eliminating patient wait time at the pharmacy by furnishing
physicians with benefit plan details at the point of prescribing so
that changes won't be needed when the prescription's being filled.



As precursor to the overall program, Henry Ford Health System implemented e-Prescribing in January 2005 through a collaboration with the Henry Ford Medical Group, an 800-member group practice, and its insurance arm, Health Alliance Plan (HAP). With technology already in place for 25 physicians, Henry Ford anticipates more than 100 physicians will be using the DrFirst Rcopia e-Prescribing software by the end of March.

The launch at Henry Ford is just the first example of what is planned across Michigan. In addition to HAP, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan will implement the program with 6,400 physicians in its Blue Preferred Plus program.

Each of the health plans and employers, in consultation with Medco, will develop a secure, HIPAA-compliant (adhering to the legislative rules concerning patient privacy), integrated patient data infrastructure that allows patient prescription and medical data to be checked for potential errors as a medication is prescribed. By providing integrated patient data across medical, pharmacy and diagnostic channels, both ambulatory and institutional clinicians will have access to relevant patient data in a secure, password-protected environment.

Medco and e-Prescribing

Currently, Medco is involved with several partnerships with electronic prescribing vendors to give more than 15,000 physicians access to Medco's pharmacy database via RxHub, LLC - a portal that supports the secure, bi-directional exchange of patient-specific prescribing information between physicians and benefit managers and the transmission of the electronic prescriptions to mail and retail pharmacies. In 2001, Medco was part of a group of PBMs that launched RxHub. RxHub will be the portal used in the SEMI pilot.

Medco has also conducted significant research on the impact of e-Prescribing on improving patient safety and reducing costs. A Medco study of physicians using e-Prescribing technology found that physicians using the devices increased their generic substitution rates by over 15 percent and their generic dispensing rates by over 8 percent. According to the Managed Care Institute, every one percent increase in the nation's generic prescription utilization rate would generate savings of $1.3 billion; generic drugs can cost as much as 70 percent less than brand name medications.

Additionally, a 2003 Medco study showed that the implementation of an electronic prescribing system with health plan coverage messaging led to a 42 percent reduction in the number of pharmacy calls to the physicians' office, with a 30 percent reduction in calls related to prescription illegibility.

About Medco

Medco Health Solutions, Inc., a leading pharmacy benefit manager with the nation's largest mail order pharmacy operations, assists its customers to moderate the cost and enhance the quality of prescription drug benefits provided to members nationwide. Its customers include private- and public- sector employers and healthcare organizations. Medco is traded on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol MHS. On the Net: http://www.medco.com/.

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" as that term is defined in the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements involve risks and uncertainties that may cause results to differ materially from those set forth in the statements. No forward-looking statement can be guaranteed, and actual results may differ materially from those projected. We undertake no obligation to publicly update any forward- looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise. Forward-looking statements in this presentation should be evaluated together with the risks and uncertainties that affect our business, particularly those mentioned in the Risk Factors section of the Company's Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission.


Source: Medco Health Solutions, Inc.

CONTACT: Jennifer Leone, Medco Health Solutions, +1-201-269-6402,
jennifer_leone@medco.com; or Kevin Lamb or Janet Schiller, Coyne Public
Relations, +1-973-316-1665

Web site: http://www.medco.com/


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