STChealth is working with Pharmacy partners around the United States to prepare for mass antibody testing using our lab data capture and reporting solution.
(PRUnderground) April 15th, 2020
While the world waits for the development of a COVID-19 vaccine, STChealth is working with Pharmacies to prepare for mass testing of COVID-19 antibodies. Pharmacies are well positioned to help the U.S. return to normalcy, but there are barriers that present real challenges to mass testing. Fortunately, STChealth has solutions to remove these barriers and enable Pharmacies to become an integral part of opening the country back up.
As rapid antibody tests are approved by the FDA, the ability to mass test the U.S. population and determine how many people have been impacted by the disease and are likely to have immunity will be the first step to re-opening the country. Mass-scale antibody testing will identify who is safe to travel from state to state, who can return to work, and who can have direct interaction with the public or patients at low risk to themselves and others.
New federal guidance under the Public Readiness and Emergency Preparedness Act enables licensed pharmacists to order and administer COVID-19 tests that have been authorized by the FDA. This removes several barriers that previously prevented pharmacists from assisting in mass screenings of Americans. However, several key barriers still remain:
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How will pharmacists be reimbursed for providing these services? Pharmacists do not currently have provider status, and lab testing services are billed on the medical side of the benefit, not the pharmacy side.
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Pharmacy management systems were not built to collect clinical data, so how will existing systems capture and share test result data?
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How will pharmacies deal with mandatory requirements to report testing results to Public Health information systems?
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How will the patient get access to their test results?
The STC|ONE platform solves all of these issues for pharmacies, enabling them to conduct COVID-19 screenings on a significant scale. With over 30 years experience building immunization information systems and disease surveillance tools for public health, STChealth offers a platform that is compliant with all regulatory and legal requirements with the flexibility and expertise to adapt quickly as changes occur.
The agnostic STC|ONE platform can connect to multiple payor networks with patient vouchers, so our pharmacy partners are not limited in the ability to capture market share. In addition to connecting pharmacies to payor networks, STChealth also has tools for retailers to enroll their own employer and payor networks. The voucher solution is seamless and is easily operationalized inside the pharmacy. Additional tools make it possible to schedule appointments, onboard new patients digitally, capture all patient’s test results electronically and query them as needed, all while sharing the results with public health and the individual patient via our consumer app, MyIR. STChealth’s technologies are currently used by over 50% of pharmacy locations in the U.S. and support bi-directional reporting with Public Health immunization information systems, a key component to a pharmacy’s ability to administer the vaccine when it does become available.
For more information about integrating STC|ONE into your Pharmacy, contact us at info@stchome.com
About STChealth
As key members of the immunization ecosystem, STChealth has spent 32 years developing public health immunization systems used across the U.S. and internationally. And now, in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, STChealth is being called to action to enable consumer-facing digital test results and immunity status, increase data exchange connections to prepare for vaccine distribution and administration, arm our pharmacy network with the tools for lab reporting and case management, and assist providers, employers, pharmacies and Public Health with analytics to support decision making. STChealth’s National Immunization Data Exchange Network processes over 1 million immunization events daily, delivering valuable decision support and ultimately resulting in closing immunization gaps in care.
Original Press Release.
