FAQs about in-office dispensing

Physician dispensing is the process of dispensing medications directly by a physician or other authorized medical healthcare provider to their patients at the point of care. Each state regulates physician dispensing. The following five states are where dispensing is restricted: Massachusetts, Montana, New York, Texas and Utah. Generally, those allowed to dispense are licensed medical professionals.

Whether you choose our Worker’s Compensation Managed Program or our Cash and Carry program, the upfront capital cost to begin are minimal. As long as your office is connected to the Internet you will be able to access our MEDeRx physician dispensing software. The initial costs consist of prepackaged medications, Rx labels and Surescripts fees if you desire to connect your EMR to MEDeRx’s software. The prepackaged medications are normally on 30 day terms. No cost are incurred for shipping on orders that meet the minimum requirements.

In less than one minute, using MEDeRx physician dispensing software, a dispense can be completed. Since your office will already have prepackaged and labeled medications which are identified as inventory in the MEDeRx software, it only takes a few steps to dispense through our software.

The Rx label is printed as the last step in the dispense process. The Rx label contains medication information that is substantially similar to any standard pharmacy. A special printer is not required. Any LaserJet, ink-jet or similar printer that you have in your office will be sufficient.

Once you have logged into the web-based software, the process can be completed in the following steps: select the patient, select the medication to be dispensed, print the label and adhere to the bottle. For Workers Compensation dispenses, you must input the claim number, name and address of insurance company, name of employer and date of injury.

For the storage of prepackaged medications, the FDA and DEA regulations stipulate the need for a locked cabinet or drawer. Controlled substances must be stored behind a double lock system. Most of our clients use a small portion of their cabinet storage space behind their reception area.

Convenience, cost savings and compliance are the three main advantages physician dispensing provides. With respect to compliance, half of the 2 billion prescriptions filled each year are taken incorrectly: one-third of patients take all the medications, one-third take some, one-third don’t take any and all; dispensing at the point of care improves patient compliance by reducing the no-fill rate and decreases long-term health costs. Patients often appreciate physician medication dispensing because they can avoid a trip to the pharmacy as well as the need to wait for the prescriptions to be filled. Patients often save money by obtaining the prescriptions of the doctor’s office versus the pharmacy.

For Worker’s Compensation patients, state fee schedules determine reimbursement. For Cash and Carry patients, each demographic is unique. One recommendation is to determine the cost of medications and then add a reasonable markup. Taking into consideration, most patients save time and money as a result of in-office dispensing by eliminating the separate trip to the local pharmacy. In office dispensing is a growing ancillary program for many practices and a great way to increase revenues.

Our web-based software program was created to streamline the process of dispensing medications. The software is a user-friendly system that makes it possible for offices to dispense prepackaged medications quickly and efficiently. Some of the many benefits include, but are not limited to, managing, ordering, inventory, reporting, tracking and dispensing medications right from your desktop.