TRICARE, the Department of Defense healthcare program, has contracted with San Mateo, Calif.-based Epocrates to offer physicians mobile access to the TRICARE formulary list.

Officials say that improved access to drug information at the point of care will translate into improved the doctor-patient relationships, better care delivery, and cost savings for military families.

“Epocrates provides a convenient way for healthcare professionals to keep up to date on formulary information and make appropriate prescribing decisions for our patients," says Lt. Col. Stacia Spridgen, director of the TRICARE Management Activity's Pharmacoeconomic Center.
 
TRICARE serves 9.6 million service members, retirees and their families. With Epocrates’ mobile drug reference apps, providers worldwide treating TRICARE patients can access formulary information quickly and easily.

This drug information is made available to all healthcare providers who are Epocrates’ subscribers across the Military Healthcare System. That free access to TRICARE formulary information includes:
 

• Prior Authorizations. Some medications require prior authorization, or additional information from the prescriber, before TRICARE allows coverage. In those cases, providers can easily link to the prior authorization website from within the Epocrates app. Identifying and addressing prior authorizations upfront reduces the need for timely callbacks from the pharmacy and delays in medication delivery to patients.
• Preferred Lists. Docs using Epocrates can quickly access TRICARE’s list of preferred medications, segmented by three tiers of cost-share. With point-of-care availability of the formulary list, they can determine the most affordable prescription options for patients.
• Pricing Options. Epocrates can help providers better understand a patient’s cost-share at the three types of locations covered by TMA: Military Treatment Facilities (MTFs), mail order and retail. MTFs do not require cost-shares, for example, making them the preferred location to fill all medications where accessible. Mail order, meanwhile, is the preferred location for all chronic medications, as there is a lower cost-share compared to retail.

 
In addition to retail, government and national formulary lists, the drug reference app features information about potential interactions, adverse reactions and more. Epocrates makse the technology available online or for download to smartphones including iPhone, Android and BlackBerry.

Spridgen tells Healthcare IT News the military hopes those docs "who prescribe with Epocrates, and we know that so many of them do," will find this "more streamlined process" and quicker access to formulary lists to be to their benefit.

"Physicians have such time constraints on their hands," she says. "This offers them more time talking with their patients and less time trying to navigate through formularies to try to identify the best medication. Any time we can use a technology to give them back the time they can use doing other things, that's a win-win for everybody."