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Technology Stocks : Verified Perscriptions System ETCR -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: tjeffries who wrote (6)	4/8/2002 9:50:18 AM
From: uthabros	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 397

fries, here's the article -03 Apr 2002, 06:04 PM EST Msg. 24519 of 25364 reposting kentucky article: Panel OKs upgrade of drug database TARGETING ABUSE MIGHT ALSO HELP MEDICAID PROGRAM By Monica Richardson HERALD-LEADER FRANKFORT BUREAU FRANKFORT - Kentucky could go after federal money to set up a high-tech system to track often-abused prescriptions and possibly save the state's Medicaid program millions in drug costs. Under a bill approved yesterday by a Senate committee, the state would essentially upgrade KASPER, the current statewide computer database for doctors and pharmacists that tracks the sale of restricted narcotics. There's currently a delay of up to six weeks before a prescription is noted by KASPER. House Bill 26, approved by the Senate Health and Welfare Committee, would give physicians immediate access to information about the kinds of medications a person is taking. A patient would be given a bar-coded prescription form. When scanned at a pharmacy, the transaction would be instantly added to a database of the Cabinet for Health Services. The state could save $25 million by eliminating fraud and duplication of prescriptions in Medicaid. "We're looking for things that in the short term and in the long term are going to save us money in the Medicaid program," said Sen. Julie Denton, R-Louisville, the committee's chairwoman. HB 26, introduced by Rep. Jack Coleman, D-Burgin, started out simply as a measure requiring prescriptions for OxyContin, an addictive painkiller, to list the patient's diagnosis. Sen. Daniel Mongiardo, D-Hazard, amended the bill to include the upgraded monitoring system, which would serve as an enforcement tool in monitoring OxyContin abuse. Lexington-based Equity Technologies & Resources has the patent on the technology for the system, which costs about $1.6 million to develop. The Governor's Office for Technology and the Cabinet for Health Services would apply for a $500,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Justice to start testing the system. Equity Technologies would raise an additional $500,000 or more through private investors, who, vice president James Kemper Millard says, are already lined up. Millard said it would take about six months to get the system up and running. Under the bill, the system would be set up as a test allowing the state to collect data to determine whether it's worth mandating statewide. As an incentive, physicians who volunteer for the test could save up to 20 percent on medical malpractice premiums, said Millard.