US 8,019,623 B2 · System and methods for providing medication selection guidance

Abstract

A system and associated methods provide medication selection guidance at the time of a prescription event for a given patient, or at other times, such as when changes occur in the patient's healthcare plan coverage. In one medication selection guidance method, information is received regarding a clinician-preferred medication prescription related to a selected patient, and based on at least one record of the selected patient, a specific information set is retrieved. For instance, the specific information set may include medications the patient is currently taken, healthcare plan coverage for the patient, or other types of information. Then, other medications that can be prescribed to the patient as alternatives to the clinician-preferred medication prescription may be determined based on the specific information set. These alternative medications may be evaluated against the patient's healthcare plan coverage to present available medication options and associated out-of-pocket costs to the patient.

Claims7

Dependent claims

A method for auditing costs of a treatment, which is prescribed to a patient, in response to a change in a healthcare plan of the patient, the method comprising:

polling a database that stores the healthcare plan of the patient, wherein the polling is performed outside a context of a prescribing event in which a clinician is prescribing one or more treatments to the patient;
in response to the polling outside the context of the prescribing event, receiving by a computing device information that describes the change in the healthcare plan of the patient, wherein the information is received outside the context of the prescribing event and includes a modified medication-formulary coverage scheme included in the healthcare plan;
in response to receiving the modified medication-formulary coverage scheme outside the context of the prescribing event, identifying a currently prescribed treatment that is prescribed to the patient;
and
determining by the computing device a cost of the currently prescribed treatment by referencing the modified medication-formulary coverage scheme, wherein the cost is determined outside the context of the prescribing event, thereby auditing the costs of the treatment.

2 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

System and methods for providing medication selection guidance

Life of this patent

System and methods for providing medication selection guidance

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims7