Pharmacy Daily | DoH backs eRx re-authorisation

THE Federal Department of Health (DoH) is backing calls for the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to re-authorise the inter-operability of the eRx Script Exchange and IP MSD prescription exchange systems (PES) until 2025.

In an email to the ACCC a DoH spokesperson said the inter-operability of the two exchanges "is expected to continue to provide benefits to the public beyond [the 2020-21 financial year]".

"The Department has fast tracked implementation of electronic prescribing with significant uptake as part of this process," the DoH spokesperson said.

"The infrastructure that is supported by the Community Pharmacy Agreement funding provides the fundamental basis for electronic prescribing and inter-operability of the PES is integral to this infrastructure.

"Inter-operability has been included in the technical framework for electronic prescribing and will continue to enable patient choice of clinical provider, especially pharmacies, that is an important part of the policy framework for supply of medicines to the Australian community."

A submission from "a concerned innovative technology company" called on the ACCC to reject eRx's request for re-authorisation of the inter-operability of the systems.

"As a potential entrant in this market, and in order to give patients a full prescription management experience, we believe that a patient should have the choice to have their prescriptions managed in an alternative system to the two choices and the only way to do this is to allow all systems to compete against each other, and ensure that the entry points for prescriptions (doctors software) and the landing points (pharmacy software) will start creating new ways for other companies to plug in their different solution," the company said.

"Today - patients have no choice in where their prescriptions go."

However, the DoH rejected suggestions that the current authorisation blocked new entrants to the market, saying "an inter-operable ecosphere is essential to foster this competition".