National Council for Prescription Drug Programs and SAFE-BioPharma to Collaborate on Life

This just crossed my desk. It is good to see a valuable use-case "ePrescription of controlled substances" moving into the electronic prescription environment using Digital Signatures. This use-case is valuable enough to overcome the expense and difficulty of using Digital Certificate identities.

NCPDP AND SAFE-BIOPHARMA TO COLLABORATE ON LIFE SCIENCE STANDARDS Scottsdale, AZ and Fort Lee, NJ (October 24, 2011) -- The National Council for Prescription Drug Programs (NCPDP) and SAFE-BioPharma Association announced today a strategic alliance to advance use of their respective standards within the life sciences.
NCPDP is an ANSI-accredited standards development organization which has led transformation in the pharmacy services sector by creating and promoting standards for electronic healthcare transactions. Working closely with its 1600+ members, NCPDP has produced operational efficiencies that save more than $30 billion annually in healthcare costs, while increasing the safety and quality of patient care. NCPDP standards, such as the Telecommunication Standard for billing and reporting claims and services, and the SCRIPT Standard for electronic prescribing, have been named in federal legislation, including HIPAA, MMA, and HITECH.SAFE-BioPharma Association created and manages the SAFE-BioPharma® digital identity and signature standard for the pharmaceutical and healthcare industries. The SAFE-BioPharma standard provides a secure, legally enforceable, and regulatory compliant way to verify the identities of parties involved in business-to-business and business-to-regulator electronic transactions. The standard is compliant with HIPAA regulations and is recognized by the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) as compliant with its rules for ePrescribing of controlled substances.
 The two organizations will collaborate in meetings, working groups, and a variety of other forums.
 "We are dedicated to transforming the healthcare system by collaborating on business solutions. Collaborating with SAFE-BioPharma will benefit the advancement of standardized solutions throughout the pharmacy services industry," said Lee Ann Stember, president NCPDP. NCPDP members represent every segment of the pharmacy services sector, as well as other healthcare stakeholder groups.
 SAFE-BioPharma facilitates interoperability and integration among researchers, vendors, regulators, clinicians, prescribers, healthcare providers and other pharmaceutical and healthcare stakeholders. SAFE-BioPharma digital signatures are widely accepted by global regulatory agencies.


"Our collaboration with NCPDP will lead to even greater process and cost improvements for healthcare and other sectors of the life sciences. The SAFE-BioPharma standard helps assure the secure transmission of confidential and regulated health-related information. We believe that both of our organizations will benefit," said Mollie Shields-Uehling, president and CEO, SAFE-BioPharma Association. The association's members include Abbott, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Forest Laboratories, GlaxoSmithKline, Johnson & Johnson, Lilly, Merck, Pfizer, Roche, and sanofi- aventis. ### About NCPDPFounded in 1977, NCPDP is a not-for-profit, ANSI-accredited, Standards Development Organization with over 1600 members representing virtually every sector of the pharmacy services industry. Our diverse membership provides leadership and healthcare business solutions through education and standards, created using the consensus building process. NCPDP has been named in federal legislation, including HIPAA, MMA, and HITECH. NCPDP members have created standards such as the Telecommunication Standard and Batch Standard, the SCRIPT Standard for e-Prescribing, the Manufacturers Rebate Standard and more to improve communication within the pharmacy industry. Our data services include the NCPDP Provider Identification Number, a unique identifier of over 75,000 pharmacies, and HCIdea, "The Prescriber Identity Solution." For more information about NCPDP Standards, Data Services, Educational Programs and Work Group meetings, go online at http://www.ncpdp.org or call (480) 477-1000. About SAFE-BioPharmaSAFE-BioPharma is the global industry standard for digital trust. It was developed by a non-profit consortium of biopharmaceutical and related companies to transition the biopharmaceutical and health care communities to paperless environments. For more information visit: http://www.safe-biopharma.orgSAFE-BioPharma® is a trademark of SAFE-BioPharma Association. Any use of this trademark requires approval from SAFE-BioPharma Association