Bio-Tech Medical Software, Inc. 2805 E. Oakland Park Blvd, Suite #205 * Fort Lauderdale, FL 33308
800-797-4711; fax 800-797-0399 www.BioScriptRx.com Overview: Bio-Tech Medical Software, Inc. was found to bring a unique and effective technology to bear on the grave problem of prescription drug diversion. The diversion and abuse of prescription medication constitutes 30% of the drug problem in the U.S. and in raw numbers of individuals affected, comes in a close second only to marijuana. Controlled prescription drugs are abused or diverted annually into the black market. Lost productivity and other expenses from this drug diversion are estimated in the billions. In addition, in the U.S. in 2004, 16,735 deaths and 598,542 ER visits were attributed to the abuse of narcotic substances, the majority involving drugs diverted from the normal healthcare system. These deaths include not those resulting from overdoses and accidents while under the influence, but also other tragic cases such as a young child ingesting the diverted drugs since the medications obtained illegally are frequently not kept in child proof containers but rather in such easily accessible and apparently benign containers as a sandwich baggies. To address this problem, President Bush signed into law the National All Schedules Prescription Electronic Reporting (NASPER) Act in 2005. The purpose of this law was to provide a framework and incentive for all states to establish an electronic database to monitor the prescription and use of Schedule II through V controlled substances and provide for interstate operability of the database. While the intent of and the motivation for the law is admirable, several obstacles have prevented the implementation of such programs. One is the lack of funding for the laws stipulations. A second and not insignificant concern is that of the requirements of the Health Portability and Accountability (HIPAA) act regarding privacy issues. In this day of tight budgets and volatile economy, significant and steady government funding to address this problem on a national or state wide basis is unlikely. An effective and cost efficient free enterprise solution is likely to offer the best chance at a sustainable program to address these problems of prescription fraud and the subsequent drug diversion.
Products: Bio-Tech Medical Software, Inc's unique answer to this problem puts the second concern, that of privacy, to rest once and for all. The company holds a provisional patent for a method using unalterable biometric traits to insure that the patient to whom a provider gives a prescription for a controlled substance is the person who fills that prescription at the pharmacy. Furthermore, this solution also catches and prevents an individual from obtaining an inordinate number of controlled medications, regardless of whether he is using fraudulent ID or not. The system utilizes server based software with a high quality, inexpensive biometric devices attached to any PC in the provider's office and in the pharmacy. The system operates in real time. No patient identifiable information is entered into the system other than the formatted biometric data. This leaves any information identifiable to specific patients in the files at the provider's office and in the pharmacy, which is where that information has always resided. Thus specific patient information could only be obtained by presenting a warrant to the provider or to the pharmacy, which has always been the case.
Target Market: The target market is the physician that prescribes and the pharmacy that dispenses any controlled substances. In
Florida, 102,628 physicians write and 14,078 pharmacies fill 230 million prescriptions annually. Approximately 8% or 13.8 million of these are for schedule II through V controlled substances. These numbers can be multiplied by 13 to get an estimate of the scope of the issue on a national basis.
Sales/Market Strategy: The process for managing prescriptions for controlled substances is regulated by the individual states. While a very few stares have tried to implement an electronic system for monitoring this class of pharmaceuticals, there are shortcomings such as privacy issues, no real-time reporting and unreliable funding. Most states do little more than maintain the prescriptions for controlled substances in a separate file. Currently in the state of Florida, the State representative from the 83rd district, Carl Domino, is sponsoring a bill in the state house to push for the implementation of a prescription drug surveillance program using an anonymous database compatible and inter-operative with similar databases that would be established in other states. Bio-Tech Medical Software, Inc's BioScript™ has the only solution that is known to comply with all the established criteria.
Competition: There are several other "cyber prescribing" programs such as DigiRx in Cooleyville, TX. Though they claim some ability to monitor prescription fraud, that is not their primary focus and the programs consist of little more than "digital prescribing." None of the programs meet all the criteria as regards to confidentiality, real time monitoring and inter system compatibility. The
Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting program comes closest to implementing a program with similar goals. However the program is operated as a source of information for healthcare personnel and not as a real time monitoring of potential prescription fraud. In addition, it is more likely toi miss some causes of prescription fraud through the use of fraudulent ID's.
Competitive Advantage: The advantage that BioScript™ is that it is a real time monitoring system that can catch prescription fraud as it happens. In addition, the operation allows for complete confidentiality which has been a significant obstacle as other programs have addressed this problem. The database stores biometric data only with no patient identifying information. The only association of the prescription and the biometric data remains in the provider's office and in the pharmacy where the prescription is presented to be fulfilled. The process of identifying a particular patient for any reason other than direct healthcare would require the presentation of a legal warrant to the pharmacy or to the provider, which is the same process that has always been in effect.
