APhA Policy Manual

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Administrative Contributions to Medication Errors

PATIENT/PHARMACIST RELATIONSHIPS PHARMACY PRACTICE

APhA encourages implementation of a standard pharmacy benefit card to improve the dispensing process and encourages the use of technology in this implementation.
APhA supports the use of technology to facilitate record-keeping of patient prescription information for third-party audit purposes and regulatory compliance.
APhA supports education of the public regarding the responsibility to be informed consumers of their pharmacy benefits provided through third-party plans.
APhA encourages third-party plans to provide pharmacies all information necessary for benefits administration in a timely organized manner or to provide access to the information through the Internet or similar technologies at no cost to the pharmacy.
APhA supports clear communication during the pharmacy claims adjudication process. APhA supports the communication of all plan management options available from the claims processor to the pharmacist.
APhA supports the development and use of systems to communicate in-pharmacy drug utilization review messages with online claims processing systems to eliminate redundant and/or repetitive messages.
APhA encourages the transmission of pre-adjudication drug utilization review messages (i.e., drug utilization review communication between the prescriber and claims processor) to the pharmacist.
APhA supports efforts to: (a) improve on-line drug utilization review messages by the establishment of evidence-based criteria to prevent drug-related conflicts that have the potential for causing serious harm; and (b) eliminate drug utilization review messages that have questionable or inconsequential impact on patient outcomes.