National Council for Prescription Drug Programs
We are so proud of our accomplishments, and appreciate the volunteerism and active participation of our members; the guidance and leadership of our Board of Trustees and executive management team; and the expertise and dedication of our staff
SCOTTSDALE, AZ (PRWEB) January 20, 2015
NCPDP, the not-for-profit pharmacy standards development organization, released highlights of its 2014 achievements with 2015 activity in full swing. NCPDP executed against its top goals for 2014, which spanned its product offerings, hosting productive forum discussions on hot button issues, developing industry standards and patient safety guidance, and continuing to expand its sphere of influence. Lee Ann Stember, President of NCPDP, explained, “We are pleased with all that we accomplished last year, and are well on our way to outpacing ourselves in 2015.”
Highlights from 2014:
- NCPDP rang in the 2014 New Year with the launch of its HCIdea® Database solution, an innovative prescriber database that provides continually updated information on more than two million prescribers. The triad of NCPDP products, HCIdea®, dataQ® and RxReconn®, provide the healthcare industry with reliable, up-to-date data and intelligence to help lower costs; reduce fraud, waste and abuse; ensure compliance with government regulations; stay ahead of proposed legislation; and improve business operations and agility.
- NCPDP worked to increase awareness of the underutilized patient safety functionality that is available in its electronic prescribing (ePrescribing) standards. The benefits of the electronic prior authorization (ePA) transactions in NCPDP’s SCRIPT Standard for ePrescribing were amplified by the National Committee on Vital Health Statistics (NCVHS) when it recommended that HHS should name the SCRIPT Standard ePA transactions as the adopted standard at the earliest possible implementation time.
- NCPDP continued to attract mounting interest in and support for its patient safety and best practice recommendations for prescription drug monitoring programs (PDMPs) and REMS (risk evaluation and mitigation strategies) – two hot button issues that will remain in the spotlight in the coming years.
- NCPDP released industry guidance for standardizing the dosing designations and labeling of oral liquid medications to prevent harm from measurement errors and overdoses. The white paper details patient risks associated with the variety of oral liquid dosing designations, prescribing practices and processing systems which can lead to dispensing and later administration errors that harm patients ‐ especially pediatric patients who are often prescribed liquid medications.
- Two new standards were released during the year: The Benefit Integration Standard meets an industry need to facilitate the exchange of information between benefit partners necessary to effectively integrate benefits when patients have coverage under more than one benefit plan. The Product Identifiers Standard provides education and guidance for consistent formatting and use of product identifiers in healthcare, including rules to avoid changes to identifiers that would disrupt the provision of healthcare and have an adverse impact on patient care.
- EDvocacy and Industry Relations activities included a productive “Association Tour,” meeting with senior leadership of nine different industry associations to discuss issues of mutual interest, and three congressional visits during the year to keep NCPDP’s expertise and solutions top of mind with legislators.
- NCPDP’s Educational Programming produced a robust webinar schedule, rounded out by a successful Educational Summit and an inspiring and engaging Annual Technology & Business Conference, which reaches new heights each year.
- NCPDP’s influence on NDEDIC, the National Dental EDI Council, has effected a transformation of the organization, supported by NCPDP’s consensus-building processes and many aspects of NCPDP’s business model. In 2014, NDEDIC’s work groups presented important standardized industry guidance for its membership to review and approve, and for the dental industry to adopt.
- The launch of NCPDP’s Elite Partner Program included the announcement of our Inaugural Elite Partner, CoverMyMeds. The program, which is limited to ten partners, establishes the highest level of sustained support for the valuable work of NCPDP in advancing patient safety and interoperability.
- In November, the Standards Charter Organization (SCO), a collaborative of U.S. healthcare standards development organizations, named NCPDP’s Senior Vice President, Standards and Industry Information Technology, John Klimek, R.Ph., as its Chair, for a 2 year term. NCPDP will work with other charter members, including Health Level Seven (HL7), Inc., Accredited Standards Committee (ASC) X12, ASTM International, and Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium (CDISC), to revitalize efforts toward harmonization of standards and interoperability that supports meaningful improvements in healthcare outcomes.
“We are so proud of our accomplishments, and appreciate the volunteerism and active participation of our members; the guidance and leadership of our Board of Trustees and executive management team; and the expertise and dedication of our staff,” stated Stember. “We are all united by our passion for our work, improving quality and efficiency of the healthcare system to benefit patients and healthcare consumers.”
Stember continued, “We hit the ground running in 2015 and look forward to yet another transformative year bringing people in the healthcare industry together to solve business challenges and improve patient safety.”
To learn more about NCPDP visit http://www.NCPDP.org. For sponsor, exhibitor or registration information on NCPDP's 2015 Annual Technology & Business Conference, visit http://www.ncpdp.org/ac/index.aspx.
About NCPDP
Founded in 1977, NCPDP is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited, Standards Development Organization with 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 ePrescribing, 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®, an innovative prescriber database that provides continually updated information on more than two 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 http://www.ncpdp.org or call (480) 477-1000.
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