Harbor-UCLA Medical Center in Torrance, California, and Phoenix-based Arizona Pulmonary Specialists — the largest U.S. private practice treating pulmonary hypertension — now offer a digital platform designed by ZappRx to facilitate the complex and time-consuming process of prescribing specialty medications.
ZappRx’s platform was specifically designed to make prescribing specialty therapies easier. The platform collects and saves information from all involved parties – prescribers, payers, patients and specialty pharmacies — need to submit such prescriptions. With this innovative and interactive system, it is possible to combine patient’s lab results, assistance programs and prior insurance coverage authorizations with information on the drug, dosage and reason for switching, among other important information, in one single place.
“The first prescription we wrote was approved within 48 hours, improving immediately on what had been a completely paper-based process for us, taking sometimes more than three weeks,” Dr. Ronald Oudiz, director of the Liu Center for Pulmonary Hypertension at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center’s Los Angeles Biomedical Research Institute, said in a press release.
The platform will reduce the time doctors spend on this process, allowing them to spend more time with patients. It will also help specialty pharmacies get medicines to patients more quickly.
“Our team spends its time differently now that we use ZappRx,” said Dr. Jeremy Feldman, director of research at Arizona Pulmonary Specialists. “The nurses worry less about the prescriptions and prior authorizations for our patients, and are able to spend more time with patients, and less time on the phone with insurance companies. The nurses also connect with the doctors more on patient care, and are generally less stressed about their jobs.”
Currently the platform is working on three specific diseases: pulmonary arterial hypertension, idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis and cystic fibrosis. ZappRx plans to expand the platform’s coverage to support prescribing processes for other medical areas, including neurology, oncology, rheumatology and gastroenterology.