STRAND® Intervention Platform First in the Country with the Capability for a Pharmacist to Create a Prescription and Bill for Oral Contraceptives

EVANS, Ga., May 23, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- STRAND, the innovative market leader in developing and supporting clinical services offered by community pharmacies, has unveiled a groundbreaking pathway that empowers pharmacists with the ability to produce an electronic prescription and bill insurers for the visit in states allowing oral contraceptive prescriptive authority. This represents the first platform in the country that has developed the edge-to-edge capability of identifying, documenting, communicating and billing for oral contraception prescribed by a trained pharmacist.

Laws in eight states and the District of Columbia now allow pharmacists the authority to write prescriptions for oral contraceptives. California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, New Mexico, Tennessee, Utah, Washington, and Washington D.C. now allow pharmacists the authority to write prescriptions for oral contraceptives. According to the CDC, almost half of all pregnancies in the United States are unplanned. This new legislation is gaining movement across the nation, granting women greater availability of oral contraception within their community.

STRAND takes into account individual state requirements, guiding pharmacists according to the laws of each state. The entire process –developed by a community pharmacist– is designed to operate within the pharmacist's typical workflow, utilizing STRAND's single-sign on (SSO) connections with pharmacy management systems.

"There's now a seamless pathway for documenting the encounter, communicating the results to other members of the healthcare team, and submitting an electronic claim for the encounter –all within the pharmacist's workflow," said Dan Lawson, Chief Technology Officer and co-founder. "By implementing this new pathway, we're thrilled to see pharmacists engage in the prescribing and implementation of enhanced services across the country."

In order to submit for reimbursement to an insurance payer, pharmacists must complete the credentialing and contracting process. In addition, pharmacists must be able to bill through a specific medical pathway, commonly called X12. STRAND provides a seamless pathway, ProClaim, that guides pharmacists through each step of the credentialing and contracting process. Once this is complete, pharmacists can bill insurances for clinical services directly within the STRAND platform. Finally, pharmacists can seamlessly send the results of the encounter to other healthcare providers through direct secure messaging which is integrated right within STRAND.

"Billing for enhanced services, such as oral contraceptive encounters, has long been a struggle to complete," said David Pope, PharmD, CDE, Chief of Innovation at STRAND. "I'm excited to see the final barrier to clinical services reimbursement –credentialing, contracting, and X12 billing–officially be removed.

"We have been very impressed working with STRAND- their patient focus and simple to use design create the perfect tool for pharmacists and technicians to provide the best clinical experience to the patient," said Kate James, President at Broadway Apothecary Pharmacy.  "While building a new module for birth control prescribing, they have anticipated needs and have been attentive to features and ideas we introduce.  This is not your typical software/platform experience!"

To discover more about STRAND and the ability to document, communicate, and bill for oral contraceptive therapy encounters, visit strandrx.com.

About STRAND
Co-founded by a community pharmacist and a technology expert in 2008, STRAND is the U.S. market leader in helping pharmacists launch clinical services within their community. They support community pharmacists across the country in engaging patients with chronic disease, such as diabetes, through STRAND, a wide-reaching intervention, documentation, and education platform capable of developing the new Pharmacist eCare plan. Their mission is to transform the community pharmacy marketplace by inspiring and empowering pharmacists to engage clinical pharmacy practice in improving both the health of their business and the health of their patients. For more information, please visit: http://www.strandrx.com.

SOURCE STRAND Clinical Technologies