User Guide — Medication History Download
When athenaOne receives a successful prescription eligibility response, it attempts to download the patient's medication history automatically from the pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs).
Providers should have access to the most up-to-date medication history for their patients. The athenahealth best practice is to download a patient's medication history at each patient encounter — for new and established patients — before ordering any medications for that patient. An up-to-date patient medication history increases the quality of care and improves patient safety, providing:
- More complete view of the patient's medications to aid in clinical decision-making
- Better detection of drug-drug and drug-allergy interactions
- Greater insight into patient medication adherence
- Indication of potential drug-seeking behaviors
Downloading a patient's medication history with the Surescripts service has been shown to yield the following benefits:
- 30% improvement in medication history completeness
- 20-minute savings per patient medication reconciliation performed
- Increased identification of medications most likely to cause adverse drug events (ADEs).
Medication History Authority field on the Quickview, Check-in, and Patient Registration pages
The Medication History Authority field specifies whether athenaOne can download a patient's medication history from pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs). After you obtain the patient's consent for medication history downloads, set the Medication History Authority field to Yes to indicate that the patient has granted the authority to download his or her medication history automatically from PBMs.
The Medication History Authority field appears on the Quickview, Check-in, and Patient Registration pages. (On the Privacy Information page, you can select Yes for the Providers have legal authority to obtain medication history? field.)
Note: If you select the Privacy Notice option in the Notices on file field (under Privacy) on the Quickview, Check-in, or Patient Registration page, athenaOne automatically sets the Medication History Authority field to Yes (if you have not yet selected Yes or No for this field).
If either the Privacy Notice or Medication History Authority option is not recorded when you check a patient in, a warning message appears. You can choose to ignore the message and proceed with check-in.
Patient consent for medication history downloads
In many states, downloading a patient's medication history is permissible under HIPAA for treatment purposes. If your practice deems that additional notification to or consent of the patient is required to download a patient's medication history per your state or local laws, athenahealth recommends that you include this notification in your HIPAA privacy, release, and assignment of benefits forms, but please consult your legal/compliance counsel to ensure compliance.
Understanding the Medication History Download
After athenaOne receives a successful prescription eligibility response, it automatically downloads the patient's medication history from the pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) via Surescripts and populates the Medications section, which appears in the patient chart and encounter form.
The initial medication history download includes data from the past 13 months. After the initial download, medication history downloads include data from 7 days prior to the previous medication history download to the current date.
- The Source field indicates the name of the PBM.
- If provided, the SIG, quantity, and refill information appears below the drug name, strength, and dosage form in the Medications section.
In addition, athenaOne attempts to download the medication history when:
- Medication History Authority field is changed to Yes and the patient is found eligible.
- athenaOne performs a prescription eligibility request and receives a response that the patient is eligible.
Note: athenaOne checks prescription eligibility automatically when a new order group is created and every hour starting 12 hours before an appointment. You can check prescription eligibility manually from the patient chart or the Quickview.
Match criteria:
- Medication history record is for a provider that exists in the practice.
- Prescription exists for the given medication with a "created" date up to 7 days prior to the fill date.
If these conditions are not met, a new medication row is added to the Medications section.
Viewing additional prescription information
For every imported drug history record that is added or matched to an existing prescription in the patient's Medications section, a show detail link appears next to that medication row.
Click show detail to expand the row and view additional information received from that payer. The additional information may include information about the prescribing provider and the pharmacy where the medication prescription was filled.
The last time that the medication history was downloaded and the medication history disclaimer appear at the bottom of the Medications section (click more... to display and hide the disclaimer).