NEW YORK, Aug. 20, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- NCPDP announced today that it has formally taken ownership of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) eRx Validation Suite, the electronic prescribing testing tool approved for use under the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) Health IT Certification Program (Certification Program). The tool is used by EHR and ePrescribing system vendors to test and assure correct implementation of NCPDP's SCRIPT Standard for data transport, content usability and system functionality.
Steven Posnack, M.S., M.H.S., Executive Director of the Office of Technology at ONC, stated, "We congratulate NCPDP on reaching this important milestone and look forward to continuing to strengthen the testing infrastructure for e-prescribing."
NCPDP has been working with NIST and ONC under a 5-year grant awarded by ONC in 2015 to investigate and migrate the eRx Validation Suite to NCPDP. The 2015 edition of the tool focuses on testing the functions that are required by Meaningful Use legislation.
"We support ONC's goal to put these testing tools and stewardship of them in the hands of the organizations that created the standards," explained Lee Ann Stember, President and CEO of NCPDP. "Our multi-stakeholder, collaborative, consensus-building processes ensure our standards are solutions that can be reasonably supported across the industry. Now with the testing tool we can help developers test and assure that their systems use the standard appropriately to deliver the clinical and administrative efficiencies and patient safeguards inherent in the NCPDP standard to their users."
"After working closely with NCPDP and ONC to develop the eRx Validation Suite, we're glad to see this important tool will be made available to the pharmaceutical community," said Kevin Brady, of NIST's Information Technology Laboratory and a lead on the eRx Validation program. "It's vital to the safety and effectiveness of e-prescribing that the community carry this work forward and help ensure the tool remains updated and useful."
EHR and ePrescribing system vendors can access the NCPDP eRx Validation Suite at https://tools.ncpdp.org/erx2015/#/home.
About NCPDP
Founded in 1977, NCPDP is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited, Standards Development Organization (SDO) with more than 1,500 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 80,000 pharmacies, resQ™, an industry pharmacy credentialing resource, and HCIdea®, an innovative prescriber database that provides continually updated information on more than 2.5 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.
SOURCE National Council For Prescription Drug Programs, Inc.
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