Patent Application
20060118436
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a portable prescription pad compendium for physicians that has both blank prescription scripts and a selection of preprinted scripts that aids in the dispensing of prescription pharmaceuticals, and further includes an accompanying discount program reminder means for enticing patients to enroll in a reminder program that will foster ongoing refilling of a given prescription by offering discounts to a patient.
2. Description of the Related Art
When physicians write prescriptions (sometimes known as an “Rx”), it is handwritten by the doctor and the patient gives the script to a pharmacist who then dispenses the medication in accordance with the handwritten instructions therein. The difficulty arises, however, in that the handwriting is often messy, illegible, or incomplete, and can lead to incorrect fulfillment by the dispensing pharmacist.
Furthermore, the current way in which a physician writes a prescription is also accompanied by another difficulty encountered when the physician gives the patient samples of the drug to be dispensed. This approach to providing complimentary pharmaceuticals can further introduce problems into the whole prescription provision process. For example, samples may be lost or stolen at a doctor's office, or may become old or expired. Other times, it may simply be inconvenient for physicians to use samples in their daily practice because of storage space and temperature requirements, or because it is distracting and inefficient to retrieve the samples in the course of a hectic day.
Lastly, the current approach to providing prescription medicines is further complicated by the epidemic problem of compliance with the terms of the prescription. Simply put, samples are only one-time inducements to take a medication in the beginning of a treatment regimen, and do not offer ongoing incentives for patients, especially for those patients who are concerned about medication costs and may not refill the prescription. This dynamic in the current prescription fulfillment process is particularly unfortunate: non-compliance in prescription drug taking is putting an enormous strain on the health care system today. Estimates of cost to the United States economy range from 50 to as high as 100 billion dollars per year. It is estimated that 17 percent of all Emergency room visits are the direct result of a prescription drug misdirection (non-compliance). Other results of non-compliance include hospital and nursing home admissions, as well as lost wages and lower productivity. Moreover, the most pressing aspect of non-compliance is reflected in the fact that compliance drops off dramatically when it comes time to refill a prescription. It is known by insurance estimates that for ongoing prescriptions, after one year from beginning a prescription regimen, approximately 60% of patients no longer continue taking or refilling the required medication. This represents an unhealthy dynamic that greatly costs both employers, insurance companies, and society at large, over time. As the population ages, non-compliance becomes a source for even more concern. Population experts say in the year 2003, 83 million Americans were over the age of 50, and by the year 2010, that figure will be over 100 million. In addition, as prescription drugs become more expensive, and as government and employer funded coverage for such drug plans becomes less comprehensive, compliance becomes even more so of a concern for doctors who are concerned about their patients following through with treatments, as well as for insurance companies who wish to reduce the resulting costs of non-compliance, and also for patients who yearn for a less expensive form of compliance. Known compliance systems have provided for various methods of notification to ensure compliance. Various methods of such notification include pager systems or cable set top boxes for use in homes and adult care centers that may enable the broadcasting of reminders. However, these methods are aimed at providing “strong arm” tactics, such as annoying messages on pagers, set top boxes and the like. As such, prior art systems do not address the root of the problem in non-compliance, which is motivation, something which is often compromised by ongoing financial concerns associated with prescription fulfillment. While these systems may attempt to provide some form of compliance, none actually encourage or motivate a patient through financial incentives to comply with a drug prescription on a sustainable basis. Accordingly, no prior art system exists to assure realistic, long-term compliance in the taking of prescription drugs. Particularly, none of these systems provide both a means of notification and an incentive for a given prescription medication to be taken.
Moreover, there is a particular problem with distributing such systems to patients. Without offering a convenient implementation to a physician, some doctors may tend to forget or otherwise neglect to offer patients such systems. Similarly, without ease of use and significant incentivization, patients will not accept such distributions from doctors, or otherwise will not regularly utilize them, thereby making the problem difficult at both ends of distribution.
In total, no system exists to address the combined shortcomings of error-prone handwritten prescriptions, inefficient sample distribution, and the lack of assurance of long-term compliance in the taking of prescription drugs. Moreover, no system offers solutions to all of these problems and means to motivate doctors to use a given system on a daily basis, by providing a simplified way of error free prescription writing that is practical, compact and convenient to carry around on their person throughout the day.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a system for enabling the error-free, compact, convenient dispensing of a wide range of prescriptions while providing a discount means for fostering ongoing patient prescription fulfillment, without the need to bother with samples or complex fulfillment notification schemes.
Additional objects, advantages and other novel features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description that follows and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following, or may be learned with the practice of the invention.
The accompanying drawings which are incorporated in, and constitute a part of the specification, illustrate a preferred embodiment of the invention and, together with the general description given above, as well as the detailed description of the preferred embodiment given below, serve to explain the principles of the invention:
In its broadest aspect, the present invention relates to portable prescription pad compendium for physicians that has at least a selection of preprinted scripts that aids in the dispensing of prescription pharmaceuticals, and further includes an accompanying discount program reminder means for enticing patients to enroll in a reminder program that fosters ongoing refilling of a given prescription by giving a patient discounts. The invention comprises a portable prescription pad compendium with discount reminder program means for prescribing prescription medications and for encouraging their subsequent usage. More particularly, the invention comprises a flexible wallet or booklet having a central hinge or spine, and a multiplicity of preprinted prescription pads on dividers attached to the spine. The flexible wallet comprises a front cover, a back cover, and the spine connecting the front cover and said back cover together, with each of the covers defining an outer surface, and a corresponding inner surface on an opposite broad side thereof. Disposed between the inner surface of the front cover and the inner surface of the back cover is at least one divider that is affixed to the spine, and at least one preprinted prescription pad is affixed between the front cover and the back cover. Any given preprinted prescription pad has a plurality of preprinted prescription scripts, wherein each preprinted prescription script has a front face and a lower end so that a discount reminder program means can be detachably affixed to each preprinted prescription script. Furthermore, a blank prescription pad having a plurality of prescription scripts is affixed between the front cover and the back cover, with each preprinted prescription scripts having a front face and a back face, upon which a drug name (and optionally, amount) on the front face might be printed. Detachably affixed (e.g., through a perforation, or as otherwise known in the art of printing) to each preprinted prescription script at the bottom or lower end of the preprinted prescription script is the discount program reminder means, which can be tailored to the given drug of that pad.
According to one preferred embodiment, a portable prescription pad compendium for physicians that has both a pad of blank prescription scripts and a selection of different preprinted script pads that aids in the dispensing of prescription pharmaceuticals that a given physician may commonly prescribe. Each different preprinted script pad further includes an accompanying discount means that is tailored for the specific drug to which a given preprinted script pad is directed. The discount program reminder means may take several physical forms as one skilled in the art may well appreciate, but in one preferred embodiment, it may be a detachably affixed paper stub or coupon that may be detached by the pharmacist or patient for use in enrolling the patient in the ongoing reminder program as a condition of him receiving a discount, free sample, etc. depending on the particular drug. Of course, the discounts and any applicable free samples that may be redeemed at the pharmacy may vary in terms of amount and method of delivery, as well as in terms of timing (e.g., scheduled mailings of coupons, etc. to patients down the road, etc.) Reference will now be made in detail to the present preferred embodiment of the invention as illustrated in the accompanying drawings.
With ongoing reference to
Preferably, the preprinted prescription pads 10 will each have their own substantially stiff backing material such as thin, cardboard or plastic, so as to be able to affix themselves within the compendium 2 by sliding into perforated slots (not depicted) within dividers 7. This will also permit the physician or other individual to insert within the compendium 2 different or replacement preprinted prescription script pads as needed. In one alternative embodiment, markings may be printed on optional tabs (not depicted) extending from dividers 7 to aid in the rapid identification of the particular medication preprinted on the subject preprinted prescription script pads within compendium 2. The dividers 7 will be molded or attached to the flexible spine so that bulky pins, clips, or rings need not be utilized in attaching the divides 7, thereby helping to ensure compactness in design, and so as to reduce sharp angles or protrusions when situated in a physician's pocket.
When provisioned as such, the any one of the multiplicity of preprinted prescription script pads will be facing in opposite directions from an other preprinted prescription script pads within compendium 2. Within each preprinted prescription script pad 10 there are a plurality of preprinted prescription sheets, or scripts 15. Within a particular preprinted prescription script pad 10, each of the plurality of prescription sheets 15 of the preprinted prescription pad 10 has a preprinted prescription format on a front face of the sheet for a particular named medication. The plurality preprinted prescription scripts 15 within a given prescription script pad 10 are all identical. In a particular embodiment, the preprinted prescription scripts 15 may include check-off boxes (not depicted) correlating to predetermined dosage options that can be checked off for the given prescription medicine. For example, in a given preprinted prescription script, the medication will be clearly printed on the script along with a predefined doseage or range of dosages/quantities that may be checked off, so as to avoid common errors that arise from fully handwritten prescriptions. Furthermore, the scripts will have preprinted identifying information of the prescriber (doctor name, address, phone number, etc.), zones for patient name and address, etc., as well as various additional features that may be printed, as needed, considering that the exact information and format of the scripts (e.g., colors, watermarks, required substitution options, and the like) will need to be further provided for on the preprinted script as required by individual state laws.
In one embodiment, the discount reminder program means will be a detachable paper extension that is detachably affixed so as to extend, preferably from a perforated segmentation e.g., tearable perforation) along the bottom of each preprinted prescription script 15, so as to facilitate the removal of both the discount program reminder means 12 by the patient or pharmacist when the patient decides to opt-in to the ongoing reminder program as a means of obtaining a discount and/or free samples of the medication. This would permit separation of the discount program reminder means 12 from a given preprinted prescription script 15 when filling a prescription. Much like the preprinted prescription scripts 15, the discount program reminder means 12 may have security enhanced features such as water marks, unique tracking numbers, security codes, and the like for preventing fraud and/or improper reuse of the discount program reminder means 12. Provision as such would most preferably be done so as to print a fraud-resistant, numerically sequenced unique tracking number that could be correlated with a patient, his data and his prescription needs (procured at an opt-in time as will be described hereafter) so that each given fulfillment or usage at a pharmacy can be associated therewith (by a pharmaceutical benefits processor, also described hereafter) and so that the patient can receive the stated discount at the time of fulfillment.
Provision of the system in this manner offers several advantages. First, the inventive system eliminates the need for physicians to keep track of unattached samples and the need to review expiration dates, or for doctors to keep the samples stored in an accessible, climate controlled environment. Second, it provides better security by the centralizing all storage and physical dispensing of pharmaceuticals at a pharmacy, thereby eliminating or reducing problems and costs associated with theft, inadvertent loss, keeping stocks current, excess packaging, etc. Thirdly, when structured in the inventive manner, doctors who desire to error-free preprinted prescription scripts will then be inclined to use the all-in-one compendium described herein, rather than separate script pads. Particularly when made in a compact, light, flexible fashion, the compendium as described herein is something which a doctor would be predisposed to carry around with him through out the course of the day.
The fulfillment aspect of the present invention stems from the distribution and use of the discount means and from that as described in related U.S. patent application Ser. Nos. 10/865,491, and 10/881,708, hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety. In its broadest aspect, the encouragement of ongoing fulfillment emanates from a system which provides for a prescription drug compliance and discount payment system having at least one discount program reminder means 12 having a confidential identification number, a solicitation means associated with each discount program reminder means 12 for soliciting a patient consent and patient information, an activation means for receiving said patient consent and patient information received from the solicitation means and for activating a patient participation record related to the confidential identification number, a processor means for receiving the confidential identification number and for receiving a prescription fulfillment transaction, as well as for awarding incentives based on said receipt of each identification number and prescription fulfillment, to patients and participating businesses associated with each said fulfillment transaction, and a compliance means for ensuring a continuing of a prescription compliance of each said patient participation record.
Discount program reminder means 12 may also provide for a solicitation means through a contact gateway, that might be a toll free number or web site for signing up (provided for those who might not wish to sign up by mail). Printed on discount means 12 is a unique identifier and transaction code means for activating and tracking the discount card usage. In order to facilitate widespread usage of the inventive system through existing pharmacy networks, the numeric representation may be simply typed or otherwise entered into an existing pharmacy system for entering and processing secondary insurance-type information for prescriptions.
Accordingly, where a patient consents to enrolling in the discount compliance program, his name, address, indication of consent, preferred means of receiving future reminders, and other information can be received through mail, email, or via phone, by an opt-in center (not depicted) into a database (either through manual data entry input, or through form-based scanning as known in the art) in connection with the discount program reminder means 12. The solicitation/sign up portion will therefore, typically have a confidential identification number contained therein that can be recorded and retained for each subsequent use.
After receiving consented notifications, the system can then make offers for proper discount inducements on subsequent refills, so that the patient will be more inclined to refill a given prescription. Accordingly, when the patient refills his prescription at a pharmacy, the system will then be able to correlate information from the solicitation/sign up portion (already entered at pharmacy), and the response to discounts offered thereafter, preferably through the coordinated efforts of a loyalty reimbursement program, opt-in center and a pharmacy benefits processor, such that when the pharmacy benefits processor receives from a pharmacy the residual confidential identification number that will accompany the transmission of the occurrence of a prescription transaction being fulfilled by the signed upped patient, the confidential number will be used to retrieve stored information from the opt-in center, that can communicate in real time as needed with the other participant entities by sending coded transaction data and reimbursement information data to each other as applicable through regularized, instant transmission of transaction data. Based on the sign up and subsequent fulfillment activity, the patient can be prompted to avail himself of the discount associated therewith by internet (email) or phone notification, there will be an internet, cable, phone, or other type of preferred connection with the patient for reminding him to fill/refill his prescription. Unless prohibited by law, the pharmacy benefits processor will apply the discount immediately at time of payment at through an electronic credit authorized to the pharmacy. Patient, ideally motivated by the idea of incentives (e.g., preferred discounts stated herein), together with his physician's recommendation (most preferably from ongoing compliance feedback as described hereafter), will therefore be inclined to participate, thereby helping to ensure his subsequent (i.e., initial and ongoing) fulfillment of the prescription.
Thereafter, the by virtue of the confidential identification number for each transaction, the loyalty reimbursement program (via the pharmacy benefits processor), could correlate the date and time of the prescription being filled with the confidential identification number. The confidential identification number would enable the correlation by enabling a retrieval of the primary care giver name, address and phone number; patient name, etc. to both verify that a given discount is only being used for one patient's medication, and to ensure that it has not expired or exceeded the maximum allowable multiple discounts provided. Thereafter, if the patient does not refill the prescription after a certain number of reminder attempts, the physician may be notified, as needed. Although one persuasive motivation for prescription fulfillment by the patient is based on the discounts applied, notification of a physician, as permitted, might additionally motivate the patient to be in compliance. Dates of non-compliance, as well as physician notification might, in certain embodiments, all be recorded in a database. Moreover, such notifications, as well as a broad picture of patient compliance for physicians, would offer further incentives to physicians, who would be distributing such a system in the first place. As mentioned, to further incentivize participating doctors, information regarding patient compliance may be aggregated to form broad pictures of compliance by groupings of patients. Such compliance might then be given to physician as doctor-specific feedback or other type of an informational representation of doctor's patient base compliance. Provision of such information in this manner would be a benefit to physicians for improving or understanding their own practice and/or patient base, as well as for insurance and/or pharmaceutical business purposes.
It is to be understood that the invention is not limited to the illustrations described and shown herein, which are deemed to be more illustrative of the best modes of carrying out the invention, and which are susceptible of modification of form, size, arrangement of parts and details operation. These modifications are within the spirit and scope of the appended claims.
