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Southeastern Michigan e-Prescribing Initiative

Categories: Empower Consumers and Providers

To accelerate the adoption of e-prescribing standards and technology, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan in 2005 partnered with several large automakers and healthcare providers to form the Southeastern Michigan e-Prescribing Initiative (SEMI).  With support from regional pharmacies and data connectivity from RxHub and SureScripts, SEMI hopes to reduce medication errors and improve care quality, as well as reduce prescription drug costs by promoting greater use of generics and optimizing formulary compliance.

To drive adoption of e-prescribing, SEMI subsidizes physician groups' implementation costs and provides incentives for using the system.  To date, the program has achieved impressive results, including:

  • Over 3,000 physicians enrolled
  • More than 350,000 prescriptions transmitted monthly
  • Approximately 25,000 prescription changes per month resulting from warnings of potential adverse drug events such as drug-to-drug interactions and patient allergies


    • In addition to participation in the SEMI initiative, BCBSM has offered a free two-year Web solution for e-prescribing through the WebDENIS provider portal.  To date, 1,000 physicians have gone live with the technology, and nearly 700,000 prescriptions have been processed electronically.  BCBSM also offers a hand-held device to the pilot participants who prefer wireless access.