NCPDP Launches Facilitator Model to Bolster Public Health Reporting
National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) will implement standards that provide real-time data access to support public health reporting during public health crises.
The National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP), a CMS Designated Standards Maintenance Organization, has announced the launch of its National Facilitator Model that aims to enable public health reporting to strengthen pandemic and epidemic interventions.
Interoperability gaps and other faults in public health data systems led to poor COVID-19 emergency response. Patient data exchange and public health reporting were issues before the pandemic, but these two areas of health IT were magnified after the COVID-19 pandemic made a lasting impact on the healthcare industry.
The weak public health infrastructure and crisis preparedness pointed to a need for greater real-time patient health data exchange and access.
“The COVID-19 pandemic and opioid epidemic exposed, among other things, gaps in care which were filled thanks to pharmacists, and challenges with the current public health infrastructure,” Lee Ann Stember, president and CEO of NCPDP, said in a public statement.
“And while there has been strong support for modernizing our public health infrastructure and eliminating data silos, pharmacists and other providers still lack access to comprehensive, real-time information from across the healthcare ecosystem at the point of care to help inform clinical decision making.”
The National Facilitator Model will use the NCPDP Real-Time Prescription Benefit data standards and technology that have facilitated access to real-time pharmacy data. In this use case, the industry standards will allow pharmacies, prescribers, and government agencies to access real-time data regarding prescription, testing, immunization, and other pharmacy data.
“I am personally and professionally invested in supporting the pilot of the National Facilitator Model. It has been available to deploy for nine years to help combat the opioid epidemic and provide prescribers and pharmacists with alerts of potential misuse or abuse before an opioid is even prescribed,” said Stember.
“The COVID-19 pandemic prompted application of the model to address all public health crises, beyond the opioid epidemic,” Stember said. “There has been great support for the model amongst congressional leaders, industry associations and others across the healthcare industry. The private sector must move it forward and make it operational for widespread adoption and use for pandemic and epidemic response and public health surveillance.”
The project will incorporate several phases to improve public health infrastructure across state lines.
According to NCPDP, in Phase 1 of the project, pharmacists will access, monitor, and report COVID-19 vaccination series information to advance workflow-enabled efficiencies, data interoperability, and real-time data access.
“The NCPDP National Facilitator Model aims to make that possible using the same interoperable industry standards that support pharmacists’ instant access to eligibility, pharmacy claim billing, prior authorization, and for prescribers to instantly transmit, change and discontinue prescriptions today,” Stember said. “This pilot is vital; we simply cannot wait for the next epidemic to take action.”
The National Facilitator Model has been made possible through a combined effort. Health IT vendor STChealth will participate in the pilot as principle researcher and National Facilitator Registry.
Additionally, the NCPDP Foundation grant was funded by the Lee Ann Stember Endowment; Founders Gift Donors FDB (First Databank) and GoodRx; and its general fund.
“FDB is pleased to join NCPDP to help extend adoption of its National Facilitator Model. Managing the health of individuals and populations proactively, especially during a public health emergency, requires that clinicians and responding agencies have ready access to and the ability to share comprehensive, flexible, and intuitive medication data,” FDB President Bob Katter, who serves as patient safety chair for the NCPDP Foundation’s new National Advisory Council, said.
“Further, patient-specific health and medication data help identify at-risk patients and inform actionable next steps,” Katter added. “The National Facilitator Model is a natural extension of our decades-long partnership with NCPDP through which we deliver trusted drug knowledge and interoperability capabilities to support healthcare professionals in carrying out their critical workflows.”