Background "PDTS has proven itself to be one of the DoD's most successful custom-built systems. In 2006, the system processed more than 166 million transactions for more than 9 million DoD beneficiaries and dependents, with an average response time of under 2 seconds per transaction." Challenge Outcome Find Out More To learn more, please visit www.emdeon.com/pbs or call 800.521.4548, Option 3. 
Use of the PDTS results in higher quality medical care based on proper medication control, reduced fraud and abuse, better management reporting and control, and most important, increased patient safety.
The U.S. Department of Defense provides prescription drug benefits to active duty and retired personnel, and their eligible dependents, a total of more than 9 million beneficiaries. In 1998, a review by the General Accounting Office determined that this program was severely fragmented. The Pharmacy Data Transaction Service (PDTS) was launched to improve patient safety, streamline data collection and management as well as provide DoD with a centralized data repository and warehouse.
--- Thomas C. Sullivan, Director Computer Sciences Corporation DoD Health Affairs, Health Sciences
DoD security requirements made it impossible for DoD and commercial data to be processed on the same system. PDTS also had to meet DoD requirements for data replication and disaster recovery as well as information and physical security at all locations.
PDTS needed to maintain real-time and batch interfaces with a large number of other government systems, as well as with several commercial entities, over 500 worldwide Military Treatment Facilities and more than 60,000 retail pharmacies.
DoD required the system to perform a wide variety of real-time functions related both to quality of health care and to the financial performance of the DoD prescription drug program.
Strategy
In 1998, DoD launched the RFP process to identify a contractor to implement the PDTS. Bidders had to be commercial entities with existing capabilities in Pharmacy Benefits Management. In early 1999, the contract was awarded to Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) with Emdeon as subcontractor providing the technical and functional expertise, including the design, implementation, maintenance and day-to-day operation of PDTS.
Emdeon addressed the need for separating DoD data from commercial transactions by replicating its commercial system, customizing the software to government specifications, and totally isolating the new system from its commercial business.
According to the DoD, PDTS allows the organization to improve the quality of its prescription service and reduce pharmaceutical costs by conducting prospective drug utilization reviews (proDUR) on each new and refill prescription against the beneficiary's complete drug profile. The central data repository also allows DoD to monitor and track patient usage and provider prescribing patterns throughout the Military Health System.
After successfully testing the PDTS system in the spring of 2000, the DoD implemented PDTS in every military treatment facility throughout the world within the following seven months.
The primary PDTS system is located in Twinsburg, OH, with long-distance data replication to the disaster recovery system in Nashville, TN. PDTS is free from single points of failure in either hardware or telecom.
Solution
PDTS provides physicians and other care providers with real-time access to a patient’s pharmaceutical profile. A Pentagon news release describes how the system works. When a patient requests a new or refill prescription at any worldwide pharmacy supporting a DoD medical beneficiary, the data is entered into the PDTS, where it is compared with a complete patient medication history stored in the system’s data repository. Through an automated tool, PDTS reviews a beneficiary's new prescription against all previous prescriptions filled through any point of service in the MHS.
With real-time velocity and before the medication is dispensed, warning messages and alerts are provided to the dispensing pharmacist or physician indicating possible adverse interactions, therapeutic overlaps, and duplicate treatments. Each transaction becomes part of the individual's patient pharmaceutical profile stored in the data repository.
PDTS has proven itself to be one of the DoD’s most successful custom-built systems. In 2006, the system processed more than 166 million transactions for more than 9 million DoD beneficiaries and dependents, with an average response time of under 2 seconds per transaction.
Security has met all expectations, and the ability to track patient usage and provider prescribing patterns has helped reduce fraud and abuse. PDTS has achieved Defense Information Technology Security Certification and Accreditation (DITSCAP), as well as being awarded the Air Force Certificate of Networthiness. In 2002, PDTS was also a finalist for the President's Quality Award and a semi-finalist for Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government’s "Innovations in American Government" award. This program recognizes imaginative and effective government responses to urgent social and economic challenges.
Since its deployment in 2000, the PDTS has avoided more than 171,000 potentially life-threatening drug interactions, in addition to those identified by each pharmacy.
In 2006, PDTS successfully passed the DITSCAP Annual Review and was awarded a continued DoD Approval to Operate. In March of 2007, Emdeon personnel were presented certificates of recognition by the TRICARE Pharmacy Operations Office in appreciation for continuing contributions and improvements.
Emdeon Business Services is fully committed to providing robust prescription claim adjudication solutions and consultative expertise for helping health payers manage prescription benefits in-house, improve patient care and reduce administrative costs.
Emdeon Prescription Benefit Solutions provides improved safety, streamlined pharmacy data transactions, and rock-solid dependability
