Mobile Connect clinical messaging for Apple's iPhone and iPad, Android and Windows Mobile devices now allows AmeriHealth plan doctors to e-prescribe and bridge care gaps.
AmeriHealth Mercy Family of
Companies is offering health-management mobile applications to its member
physicians using NaviNet's Mobile Connect platform.
NaviNet is a provider of
real-time health care communications.
The applications will allow
doctors in the AmeriHealth network to access mobile clinical care alerts and
prescribe medications electronically. Using Mobile Connect, AmeriHealth doctors
will be able to view patients' medication histories on their smartphones.
By reading through clinical
data using Mobile Connect, doctors will be able to avoid medical errors, such
as overprescribing medication, and reduce hospitalization.
"It's really trying to
increase the penetration of real-time physician information into the
physician's hands," Dr.
Jay Feldstein,
regional president of AmeriHealth's northern division, told
eWEEK.
Messages that pop up in
Mobile Connect can help doctors avoid care gaps, according to Feldstein. If
patients suffer from diabetes, a heart condition or an abnormal amount of
lipids in the blood, Mobile Connect will alert doctors with electronic
messages.
Mobile Connect's network
allows health plans such as AmeriHealth to send patient-related alerts to
physicians on Apple's iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad or an Android- or Windows
Mobile-based device. Doctors can then transfer the data into their
practice-management software.
Mobile Connect integrates
NaviNet Prescribe, which allows doctors to prescribe medications
electronically, authorize refills, access medication histories and screen for
drug interactions. In addition, doctors can view patient benefit information,
including copayments and which drugs have formulary status.
"We're just trying to
put actual information in their hands so they deliver better care,"
Feldstein said.
AmeriHealth will provide
both the devices and the applications to physicians, and the benefits to
patient health will pay for the cost of the devices, Feldstein suggested.
"We think the savings
that will occur because of decreased ER visits, decreased hospitalization and
better medication compliance will pay for it in the long run," Feldstein
explained.
Alerts on physicians' mobile
devices may contain information on missed tests or procedures and on procedures
performed by other physicians.
NaviNet and AmeriHealth
announced their agreement Sept. 13.
On Aug. 11
Aetna
announced that it would also adopt Mobile Connect to allow for real-time
messaging between doctors and patients and access to clinical data in the exam
room.
Meanwhile,
on June 15,
NaviNet
launched its Mobile Connect for Pharmacy Benefit Managers so that companies such as
CVS Caremark and Medco can transmit vital pharmaceutical data to physicians and
retail and mail-order pharmacies.
With doctors accessing
clinical data through Mobile Connect provided by health plans such as
AmeriHealth Mercy and Aetna, the decisions they'll be able to make with the
data available in real time could help patients recover faster and remain
healthy for longer periods of time, Dr. Michael Ross, NaviNet's chief medical
officer, noted in a statement.
AmeriHealth will initially
roll out Mobile Connect to doctors in Lehigh, Pa. If the trial goes well after
six months, the insurer will then add the service to the rest of Pennsylvania
and other states in which the plan operates, including Indiana, Louisiana and
South Carolina.
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