'It's coming and they need to educate themselves'

CARMEL, Ind. - Carmen Davies believes e-prescribing can help HME providers achieve a trifecta of improvements in patient care, compliance and profitability.

Here's what Davies, who recently became an executive vice president and the chief compliance officer at Stratice Healthcare, a vendor of an e-prescribing software solution for HME, had to say about how technology is upending health care.

HME News: What's behind the push toward e-prescribing?

Carmen Davies: We've all seen the numbers of how home care is going to explode in the next 10-20 years. There has to be a more efficient way to bring care into the home. It's also driven by reductions in reimbursement. We have to find a more intuitive way of getting the same end result in a smarter, less laborious fashion.

HME: Stratice's strategy is for vendors of EHR systems to integrate eDMEplus into their systems. Can you give me a sense for the size of the EHR market, and how many vendors have integrated eDMEplus so far?

Davies: There are more than 600 EHR systems in varying sizes. You also have systems for specialty markets like urgent care, and companies that manage a group of systems. Right now, we've integrated with iSalus and NewCropRx.

HME: When an EHR system has integrated eDMEplus, how does it impact the HME providers that have signed up to see orders using the solution?

Davies: If a physician using the system clicks on “order DME,” it would take them right to eDMEplus, where many of the pieces of the EHR will be self-populated, like diagnosis, patient name, physician and NPI. It also gives them the opportunity to select the product and the provider. This helps ensure that the required documents meet government standards. The end result is you have a completed and compliant electronically signed order at the time you're starting the fulfillment process, not after-the-fact.

HME: E-prescribing for HME isn't as common as for, say, medication. What will be the push that shoves the technology on the HME industry?

Davies: CMS's comment period closed this month for Meaningful Use Stage 3 (a government program to increase the use of certified EHR technology). I was very excited to see comments about Meaningful Use Stage 3 including HME. If adopted as a standard, this would mean it would be part of the measured and incentivized program for physicians.

HME: Sounds like it would be a game changer.

Davies: It would. The supplier base needs to get knowledgeable about e-prescribing and be able to recognize the terminology, like interoperability. It's coming and they need to educate themselves.