Policy Recommendations for Nationwide Pharmacy Exchange

Pharmacy claims data is an excellent source of patient medication information and it can be used for medication reconciliation, medication therapy management and adherence monitoring. The use of pharmacy data can be of particular benefit to the primary care provider, who is the optimal gatekeeper of a patient’s care. The objective of this capstone project is to explore the technological feasibility and policy implications of the national exchange of prescription data, from the primary care perspective. A analysis was conducted on current healthcare policies, methods of data exchange and current data standards to determine the opportunities and barriers to national pharmacy data exchange. A previous related project demonstrating the capabilities of linked pharmacy data to a primary care EHR was also reviewed to support the capstone objective. In reviewing the current status of health information exchange, four important policy areas that were identified as critical to pharmacy data exchange were the advancement of e-prescribing, EHR interoperability, enhanced security and privacy and complete and standardized data capture. Policy recommendations affecting these areas include creating a Stage 3 Meaningful Use objective for the importing of pharmacy histories and updating current pharmacy data standards to include over-the-counter nomenclature. In conclusion, the national exchange of pharmacy data will be able to improve patient care at the primary care level, yet future policy changes will need to consider a multimodal approach with a variety of healthcare stakeholder perspectives. Presentation: 25 minute