Medication Synchronization Algorithm for Pharmacy Refill Consolidation
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Solution Overview
Problem
The current systems for managing prescription refills in high-volume pharmacies face challenges in synchronizing refill dates for multiple maintenance medications, leading to unsynchronized delivery dates, customer annoyance, unnecessary waste, and increased costs.
Innovation Solution
The implementation of a medication synchronization algorithm within the benefit manager device, which synchronizes refill dates by adjusting the shipment dates of prescription drugs enrolled in an automatic refill program, ensuring that all maintenance drugs are refilled on the same date.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Ease of operation
If individualized prescription orders are processed separately, then each prescription can be filled independently, but the processing burden on PBM servers and shipping companies increases significantly
Solution Approach 1:
The patent combines multiple individual prescription orders into a single consolidated order when they share common characteristics (same pharmacy, same shipping address, compatible medications). This merging approach maintains the independence of individual prescription processing while reducing the overall processing burden on PBM servers and shipping companies by batching multiple prescriptions together.
2Adaptability or versatility
If multiple maintenance medications are refilled on different dates, then each medication can be refilled according to its own schedule, but customer inconvenience and waste increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system performs preliminary analysis of multiple prescription refill dates and proactively consolidates them into a single synchronized refill date. By anticipating the need for multiple refills and planning them together in advance, the system eliminates customer inconvenience from receiving multiple separate shipments and reduces waste from unused medications that might expire before use.
Solution Approach 2:
The patent changes the refill date parameter from individual medication-specific dates to a unified synchronized date for multiple medications. This parameter change allows the system to coordinate refill timing across different medications, ensuring they all arrive on the same date, which reduces customer inconvenience and prevents waste from staggered deliveries.
3Productivity
If prescription refills are processed individually without synchronization, then processing is simpler, but shipping costs and packaging waste increase
Solution Approach 1:
The system merges multiple individual prescription refills into a single consolidated shipment when they can be synchronized to the same delivery date. This combining approach maintains high refill processing speed by handling multiple prescriptions through a unified workflow while significantly reducing shipping costs and packaging waste by eliminating redundant deliveries and packaging materials.
Data Source
AI summary
Methods and systems for classifying and editing insurance claims records are described. In one embodiment, a method, which can be performed by a processor, includes identifying that a first prescription drug prescribed to a first patient, identifying a first date and a second date related to the first prescription, the second date occurring after the first date, both the first and second dates depending on a previous fill of the first prescription drug, identifying, at the processor, a third date associated with a second prescription, comparing, at the processor, the third date to the first and second dates to determine whether the third date occurs after the first date and before the second date, and filling and dispensing the first prescription drug and the second prescription drug on the same dispense date when the third date occurs after the first date and before the second date.