Page 38 - HME Business, March/April 2022

Products & Technology
EPRESCRIBE FOR HME
Other healthcare industries have made incredible efficiency gains thanks to eprescription. Now this game-changing technology is making strides in post- acute care, and that includes HME. How do providers leverage its benefits? By David Kopf
Say hello to eprescription, the electronic healthcare hand- shake that is rapidly gaining momentum in HME. For years, HME has sat on the sidelines of healthcare’s adop- tion of eprescription, but several factors are changing that.
So, what is eprescription? It’s simple: rather than a referral source sending a faxed prescription to an HME provider, the refer- ring physician or other healthcare profes- sional can send the prescription electroni- cally. Eprescription acts as the secure, HIPAA- compliant mechanism for sending prescrip- tion and patient data from the referral source to the HME provider. This leaves nothing up to interpretation; the prescription is accu- rate, error-free, and includes all the necessary
information for a clean claim.
While eprescription has been a regular
component of healthcare IT systems for years, its adoption in the home medical equipment industry has taken some time, but recently that development has gained traction. HME software companies such as Brightree LLC (Brightree.com) have been working to drive eprescription for the industry, and eprescribe companies such as Parachute Health (parachutehealth.com) and GoScripts (goscripts.com) have been offering eprescription solutions specifically for HME providers and their referrals.
The biggest recent development in epre- scription for HME happened last September when a collection of HME industry leaders formed DMEScripts LLC, an eprescrip- tion company for HME that was driven by
providers and industry groups. The alliance of investors forming DMEScripts includes the American Association for Homecare, VGM & Associates, AdaptHealth LLC, Apria Healthcare Group LLC, Lincare Inc. and Rotech Healthcare Inc.
Suffice it to say, eprescribe for HME is starting to make big strides. That’s due to several factors.
MARKET MOMENTUM
“We’re starting to see a lot of the solutions out in the space come of age, and we’re seeing a greater uptake amongst referral sources and HMEs alike for moving forward with tech- nology-based solutions to enable eprescribe,” says Nick Knowlton, vice president of busi- ness development for Brightree.
Knowlton has been heavily involved in
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