NextGen Healthcare Completes Integration of CoverMyMeds

Quality Systems, Inc., known to its clients as NextGen Healthcare, announced that its cloud-based electronic health record (EHR) ambulatory product, NextGen Office, has completed its integration with CoverMyMeds, the nation’s largest electronic prior authorization (ePA) solution. CoverMyMeds enables medical practices and pharmacies to submit ePA requests for any medication and to all health plans nationwide. Historically, the prior authorization (PA) process has been manual via paper, faxes, and phone calls between providers, pharmacies, and insurers. The CoverMyMeds solution will be available to all providers using NextGen Office (formerly, MediTouch). Key benefits of the fully-integrated solution include:

• Providers can complete PA requests on average up to three times faster, saving valuable time in the office.
• Streamlined communications and improved productivity across providers, pharmacies and insurance companies, which helps to reduce delays for the patient awaiting their needed medication.
• Solution is built into design of workflow which provides ease of use.
• The ability to initiate, transmit and track the status of PA requests within the clinical workflow helps improve time to therapy and decreases prescription abandonment.

“We believe the current prior authorization process places too much administrative burden on all parties involved in the prescription process, often resulting in medication abandonment,” said Julia Albright, Ph.D., Vice President, Solutions, NextGen Healthcare. “Our goal is to work with CoverMyMeds to minimize this hassle for patients and pharmacies, and help providers achieve greater productivity and increase the ease of patients receiving their medications.” According to CoverMyMeds’ 2018 ePA National Adoption Scorecard, an annual report on the current state of ePA in the industry, approximately 10 percent of prescription claims are rejected by the pharmacy, and, on average, 66 percent of those prescriptions require PA. Further, 36 percent of those prescriptions will be abandoned due to the complex paper-based process.

Providers who exclusively use an electronic method for PA requests reported spending 2.5 fewer hours on average on PA each week. This underscores the need for transforming the paper-based PA process into an electronic process that helps minimize prescription abandonment and administrative waste. “Adding a streamlined ePA solution at the point of prescribing further enhances productivity within the EHR platform, while minimizing hassle for patients and pharmacies,” said Ryan Tarzy, VP, Strategy & Business Development, CoverMyMeds. “We are thrilled to partner with NextGen Healthcare to continue our mission of helping patients receive the medications they need to live healthy lives.” – Medical Buyer Bureau