SureScripts was founded in 2001 by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACDS) and the National Community Pharmacists Association (NCPA) to improve the quality, safety, and efficiency of the overall prescribing process. The Pharmacy Health Information Exchange™, operated by SureScripts is the largest network to link electronic communications between pharmacies and physicians, allowing the electronic exchange of prescription information.

Since its creation in 2001, SureScripts has moved from planning to implementation and execution, detailing a record of accomplishments, while revealing a clear roadmap for the future. The company’s evolution and accomplishments are shared by a broad range of industry partners.

2002 - The Year of Development

• SureScripts draws on the skills and experience of technological experts to develop a network that connects clinical applications in physician practices and established software in pharmacies.
• A business model is developed, enhanced and revised to meet the needs of a rapidly changing industry.
• An innovative marketing plan is conceived to focus on a unique regional deployment strategy.

2003 - The Year of Pharmacy Commitment

• More than 75% of the pharmacies in the U.S. sign letters of intent to use SureScripts services.
• More 20% of the 55,000 pharmacies in the U.S. become members of SureScripts.
• SureScripts partners with the Rhode Island Quality Institute to pilot the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange, operated by SureScripts in Rhode Island, bringing the capability to electronically communicate to nearly 70 percent of the state's pharmacies as well as additional pharmacies in Virginia and Maryland.

2004 - The Year of Deployment

• SureScripts becomes the largest network provider of electronic prescribing services, signing agreements, testing and certifying the software of pharmacies and pharmacy technology vendors representing more than 85 percent of U.S. pharmacies.
• In addition, SureScripts signed contracts with 30 physician technology companies who supply electronic health record and electronic prescribing applications to over 100,000 current physician users. Physicians are expressing a stronger interest in electronic prescribing as they become increasingly aware of the known efficiencies and safety factors, as well as the emphasis placed on the process by Medicare and Medicaid.
• Pharmacies are activated in 46 states and Community Adoption Programs are underway in more than 25 states.

2005 - The Year of Growth

• SureScripts receives recognition by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) in their proposed rule to adopt standards for an electronic prescription drug program under Title 1 of the Medicare Prescription Drug, Improvement and Modernization Act of 2003 (MMA).
• Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt selects SureScripts CEO and President Kevin Hutchinson as one of the 16 commissioners to serve on the American Health Information Community, a federally-chartered commission charged with advising the Secretary on how to make health information digital and interoperable.
• SureScripts participates in urgent effort to make KatrinaHealth.org available to health care professionals – the online service was created for authorized health professionals to gain electronic access to prescription medication records for evacuees from Hurricane Katrina.
• SureScripts brings together nearly 20 physician technology solution providers to share best practices and address growing urgency to encourage adoption and use of healthcare information technology among physicians.
• 70% of nation’s chain pharmacies are live on the SureScripts electronic prescribing network. National Community Pharmacists Association issues call to action to independent pharmacists to join rapidly growing trend of electronic prescribing.
• SureScripts launches Clinical Advisory Council, a group of seven physicians who will help guide SureScripts strategies around health information technology adoption and utilization.

2006 - Focus on Utilization

• The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services awards SureScripts a $2 million grant to conduct tests of electronic prescribing as part of the agency’s Medicare prescription drug benefit program. SureScripts uses six pilots in Florida, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Jersey, Rhode Island and Tennessee to research the function and interoperability of ten technology standards over the course of 2006.
• SureScripts joins with executives from U.S. pharmacy chains and owners of independent pharmacies from across the nation to announce the country’s most significant effort to date to provide physicians and consumers with medication history for electronic records while protecting patient privacy. SureScripts announces plans to expand service to support President Bush’s call for all Americans to have electronic health records.
• SureScripts launches the Safe-Rx Award which goes to the top 10 e-prescribing states in the nation and three physicians within the winning states who have demonstrated outstanding leadership through their use of e-prescribing technology.
• SureScripts names national healthcare IT leaders to its board of directors: Bruce Fried, Esq., Mark Frisse, M.D., and John Glaser, Ph.D., were elected by SureScripts’ charter members as the first independent directors to its board.
• SureScripts announces first collaborations with payer community as part of its rollout of new services in 2006. Payers announce support for MMA mandated electronic prescribing services providing information on patient formulary, eligibility and medication history.
• SureScripts announces new certification status – GoldRx – to recognize physician software and service providers most committed to healthcare interoperability.
• SureScripts supports the IOM’s recommendation that all scripts be written electronically by 2010.
• SureScripts launches Get Connected campaign to raise awareness of fax-prescribing vs. e-prescribing. SureScripts estimates that approximately 150,000 physicians in the United States could be using their existing electronic medical record (EMR), lab order or e-prescribing technology to send and receive prescriptions directly to and from their local pharmacists’ computers. The problem: Most are not aware of this. The result: Most use a computer or handheld device to – believe it, or not – send fax-based prescriptions to their local pharmacists’ fax machines. By going to www.GetRxConnected.com, physician practices can find out if their EMR or e-prescribing software is certified to provide them an electronic connection to pharmacies electronically and how to go about realizing that connection -- i.e. how they can "Get Connected." The response to the campaign yields valuable insight: Of the 1,444 responders who reported using clinical technologies within their practices, 795 (55.1%) use technology that has been certified to connect to community pharmacies through the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange^™. Most of these physicians, however, are not electronically connected to their pharmacy so SureScripts assists them with directions on how to secure a simple upgrade so they can "Get Connected" for e-prescribing. The campaign also reveals that physician practices spend an average of 4.78 to 4.92 hours a day managing the prescription refill process, translating to a cost of $50,000 a year/per practice (1).

(1) Derived from 2004 MGMA Study - Analyzing cost of administrative complexity in group practice

2007 - Present: Setting the Stage for Healthcare Interoperability

• SureScripts changes name of network to the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange^™, operated by SureScripts, to more accurately reflect SureScripts’ expanded set of services and the ability of the nation's pharmacies to securely exchange critical health information with physicians.
• SureScripts makes medication history, formulary and eligibility services available to physicians using SureScripts certified software.
• SureScripts holds second annual Safe-Rx awards.
• SureScripts announces the first physician software and service providers to achieve GoldRx Certification status.
• SureScripts joins nation’s community pharmacies to announce a new Rx History initiative that will provide individuals who have been displaced by natural disasters or other emergencies with faster, safer access to life-saving prescription medications.
• SureScripts acquires MedAvant Healthcare Solutions’ (NASDAQ: PILL) electronic prescribing network, the longest operating physician-to-pharmacy electronic prescription network in the nation. SureScripts is not purchasing MedAvant’s physician desktop application PreScribe.

A History of Partnerships & Alliances

A critical factor in SureScripts’ success continues to be the establishment of partnerships and alliances. These alliances with pharmacies, physicians, federal and state legislators, health regulators, boards of pharmacies, quality-focused health organizations, physician associations and elected officials focus on enhancing patient safety, improving the efficiency of the prescribing process, and delivering a higher quality of healthcare data.

By collaborating and consolidating efforts with community organizations in this way, SureScripts is able to speed local awareness, acceptance and integration of true electronic prescribing. Examples of entities partnering with SureScripts are highlighted in the SureScripts Partner Overview.

In partnership with key community stakeholders, electronic prescribing adoption programs are being initiated in various regions across the country. Currently pharmacies have been activated in all states with the following exceptions due to the status of state regulations.

Certifying Pharmacy and Physician Technology Software

SureScripts does not develop, sell or endorse specific electronic prescribing software. Instead, SureScripts works with software companies that supply electronic health record (EHR) and electronic prescribing applications to physician practices and pharmacy technology vendors to connect their solutions to the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange, operated by SureScripts.

Technology vendors cannot connect to the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange, operated by SureScripts until they complete a comprehensive certification process. As part of its certification process, SureScripts establishes ground rules that safeguard the fairness of the prescribing process, including rules that among other things, ensures patient choice of pharmacy and physician choice of therapy.

On a technical level, the certification process specifies the standard technical format for transmitting prescription information and tests each vendor’s electronic connections to the network.

The certification rules also ensures that prescribing decisions are based on best medical practices, not solely on financial considerations or the interests of one particular entity. For instance, by prohibiting commercial messaging, as the new Medicare legislation does as well, to physicians at the point of prescribing, SureScripts is helping to safeguard the fairness of the process.

Today, well over 100 physician technology companies have been designated as SureScripts Certified Solution Providers™.

Additional physician technology vendors have committed to connect to the network and are in the various stages of the SureScripts testing and certification process and once they complete certification, these vendors will be permitted to connect their physician customers to the growing Pharmacy Health Information Exchange, operated by SureScripts.

In addition to certifying the proprietary software of nealy all of the nation’s largest chain pharmacies, more than twenty pharmacy management software vendors have completed the certification process to conduct electronic prescribing transactions over the Pharmacy Health Information Exchange, operated by SureScripts. Over twenty-five additional pharmacy technology vendors have committed to connect to the network and are in the various stages of the process.