Catherine E. Cooke, PharmD PosiHealth, Inc., Ellicott City, Md, University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Baltimore ccooke@posihealth.com
Shan Xing, PharmD University of Maryland School of Pharmacy, Baltimore
Helen Y. Lee, PharmD, MBA CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Baltimore
Daniel A. Belletti, MA Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation, East Hanover, NJ
Dr. Cooke has received honoraria for speaking on behalf of Pfizer, Inc. She has consulted for AstraZeneca, Lilly, and Novartis, and has received research grants from Amylin, Pfizer, Novo Nordisk, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Novartis. Drs. Xing and Lee reported no potential conflict of interest relevant to this article. Mr. Belletti is an employee of Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.
Funding for this study was provided by Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation.
The authors thank Teisha Robertson of PosiHealth, Inc., for her assistance with the data analysis.
Nearly 16% of antihypertensive prescriptions in this study went unfilled. Managed care denials played a big part, but a third of the time patients didn’t pick up medications. E-prescribing feedback could help reverse these rates.
Fourth, patients may have received samples from their physician and subsequently failed to obtain their antihypertensive prescription at the pharmacy because the medication sample was ineffective or not tolerated.
Fifth, claims data from physicians who were e-prescribing were used to proxy electronic prescriptions. However, some physicians may have handed patients their prescriptions, which, if never taken to the pharmacy, would result in an underestimation of first-fill failure rate.
CORRESPONDENCE Catherine E. Cooke, President, PosiHealth, Inc., 5106 Bonnie Branch Road, Ellicott City, MD 21043; cCooke@PosiHealth.com
