BUSINESSRobot rep latest tactic in generics pushThe dispensing machines are among the newest tools managed care firms are using to get doctors to steer patients toward medications that are less expensive.By Robert Kazel, AMNews staff. Jan. 31, 2005. Francis X. Solano, MD, an internist at a University of Pittsburgh medical clinic, writes many more prescriptions for generics than he did even a short time ago. That's the way Highmark BlueCross BlueShield, the largest health insurer in Pennsylvania, planned it. Late in 2003, the company paid for two robot-like vending machines to be hauled into Dr. Solano's practice. Each machine resembles a large filing cabinet fused to a computer printer and a bank machine. They contain samples of about 20 generic medications apiece, including antibiotics, antidepressants and antihypertensives. Dr. Solano has come to use the automated apothecaries several times a day. He enters a pass code and selects a drug name on a touch-sensitive screen. One of eight drawers pops open. He removes a 30-day, prepackaged sample, verifies its contents with a bar-code scanner, and hands the patient a sheet of drug information that is generated automatically. "It's an incredible way to get people started on drugs that are generic, and it's also a value-added service for the patients," Dr. Solano said. "If it takes 30 seconds to a minute it's a lot, and you have a happy patient." The robot drug dispenser is but one of the more recent and overt tools managed care plans are using to get physicians to influence their patients to fill their prescriptions with generic drugs, thus reducing pharmaceutical costs, which plans generally report as their fastest-growing expense. The generic drug robots, marketed for two years by San Diego-based MedVantx, are present in about 45 medical offices in Pennsylvania, California, New Jersey and Oregon, said Rob Feeney, the company's president and CEO. The firm has contracts with more than 20 health plans, including Indianapolis-based WellPoint, the nation's largest health insurer, which is paying MedVantx to maintain the systems at 15 sites in California. [...]Full text of AMNews content is available to AMA members and paid subscribers.
Copyright 2005 American Medical Association. All rights reserved.
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