Get More From Your Medical & Dental Software by Customizing With APIs

In the race for a digital healthcare world, the number of Electronic Medical Records and Electronic Health Records software companies has grown exponentially. Added to this growth is the myriad of Federal and State government healthcare software regulations, requirements, HIPAA changes, and interoperability mandates. With constantly evolving processes and requirements, it’s no wonder that many EMR and medical software companies have difficulty keeping up.

One component of an EMR – ePrescribing – is one of the most complex to manage. ePrescribing software must adhere to its own Federal and State ePrescribing regulations. Not to mention the complex reporting requirements like:

• EPCS Audit and Incident Reporting
  • HIPAA / Interoperability Reporting
  • ONC Meaningful Use 3 Certification for Electronic Health Records (ePrescribing and Medication Related Criteria)
  • PDMP / NARX Reporting

There is also a patient-centered component of ePrescribing. Ensuring their safety and improving their overall healthcare experience should be considerations in selecting the right platform.

As healthcare companies, Practice Management and Dental Service Organizations continue to digitize, ePrescribing is essential to ensuring prescriptions are reliable, safe, and manageable. Without having to recreate the wheel, EMR and healthcare software companies can utilize APIs to add ePrescribing functionality at the click of a button.

What is an API?

An application programming interface (API) is a way for two or more software programs to communicate with each other. In contrast to a user interface that connects a computer to a person, an application programming interface connects computers or pieces of software to each other.

An ePrescribing API can be used to integrate ePrescribing functionality with any EMR or medical software product.

Here are a few of its many capabilities:

• NewRx: Route new prescriptions directly to the patient’s pharmacy of choice, saving them a “drop off” trip.
• Rx Refills: Receive prescription renewal requests electronically, communicate directly with the pharmacy, and eliminate back-and-forth communication via fax machine while better protecting patient privacy.
• Medication History: View aggregated medication history data from pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) upon receipt of patient consent. This information helps providers establish smarter treatment plans.
• Real-Time Prescription Benefit: Eligibility, benefits, and formulary information are at a prescriber’s fingertips at the time of prescribing. This enables prescribers to select affordable, on-formulary medications covered by the patient’s drug benefit.
• Electronic Prior Authorization: Medications are flagged when prior authorization is required from the payer or PBM allowing the prescriber to quickly follow a digital workflow for approval or select a therapeutic alternative that doesn’t require a PA.
• Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS): Ensures all EPCS certifications and third-party audit documentation as required by the DEA is met before a prescription can be transmitted.

Why use API Endpoints?

The benefits of ePrescribing are well documented, and API solutions can give your customers all of these benefits with all the tools you need to get up and running in just a few days. EMR and Medical software companies can utilize ePrescribing APIs to:

• Improve Patient Care: Ensure medication refills safety and speed for the best care.
• Reduce Medication Errors: Reduce errors and improve patient safety with complete access to medication histories, allergies, drug-drug interaction alerts and on-demand reporting.
• Streamline Costs and Workflow: Improve speed and efficiency with ePrescription workflows to manage all ordering, including full formulary and pharmacy benefit checks to confirm coverage, co-payments and medication options.
• Save Time: APIs are readily available, easy to implement, and offer automatic updates for functionality and regulatory changes, without you having to make any changes.
• Increase Revenue: ePrescribing APIs allow EMRs and Medical software companies to offer clients additional functionality at a fraction of the cost to build it in-house. With custom interfaces and automatic updates, you can offer your clients additional ePrescribing benefits without having to worry about research, development, and regulatory changes.  

EMRs, medical software companies and DSOs are essential to today’s healthcare world. With laws and regulations requiring electronic records systems, it is vital that healthcare organizations are using a system that meets all federal and state regulations. 

It is also important to understand what additional software can be integrated into these systems. Oftentimes, especially with EMRs, customers will want to tailor certain features or add additional functionality through APIs or embedded links. With ePrescribing APIs, EMRs can offer additional flexibility in the software so it can continue to grow and evolve as new technology continues to develop.

ePrescribing software has many advantages that save time, improve patient safety, and provide better tracking to monitor prescribing behavior.  

Check out our Services and Integrations to learn how you can get started with DoseSpot’s ePrescribing APIs.