Dictionary On Prescribed Medication

Dictionary On Prescribed Medication

Dictionary On Prescribed Medication

Electronic prescribing systems that tell doctors the least expensive drugs can save millions of dollars a year, a new study finds.

One of the challenges physicians face is that they do not know which drugs are preferred or not preferred, said Dr. Michael A. Fischer, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and lead author of a report in the December issue of the Archives of Internal Medicine.

Drugs Were Color Coded By Generic or Brand-named

“The insurance companies involved in the study provided that information by a color code -- green for drugs that were preferred, red for drugs that were not preferred,” said Fischer of the study.

The study of 17.4 million prescriptions filled by more than 1.5 million patients of nearly 1,200 Massachusetts physicians found that use of the least expensive drugs -- those available generically -- increased by more than 3 percent when e-prescribing was used. Use of more expensive preferred brand-name drugs decreased by almost 2 percent, and use of non-preferred brand-name drugs decreased by 1.5 percent.