Automated DUR Backed By US GAO

The US Health Care Financing Administration should help to establish a working group or similar forum quickly for coordinating the nationwide collection and sharing of information on best practices for automated prospective drug utilization review programs, according to a report by the General Accounting Office.

At present, US states have no systematic way to share experiences and best practices, according to the GAO report, which is entitled Prescription Drugs and Medicaid: Automated Review Systems Can Help Promote Safety, Save Money. 43 states plus the District of Columbia either have or plan to implement automated DUR systems, notes the study, which examined 12 months of data in Maryland, Missouri, New Mexico, Oregon and Pennsylvania, all of which have automatic prospective DUR systems.

Five States "Saved Over $30 Million In 12 Months" The GAO concluded that over this period, the alerts generated by the systems reduced costs by over $30 million. It found that 31.7 million prescriptions were covered by the programs in the five states during the study period, and of these 6.3 million, or 20%, generated alerts by the automated DUR systems. This led to 650,000 prescriptions being cancelled, representing 10% of the alerts and 2% of the total prescriptions handled. The most common reason for the alert, involving 1.6 million prescriptions, was overutilization, followed by 1.5 million for therapeutic duplications, 752,000 for drug/drug interactions, 403,000 for underutilization, 398.000 for drug/disease interactions and 15,000 pregnancy alerts.