Digital Signatures Unlock e-Prescribing for All Drugs Through H2H & ARX Partnership

Pleasant Hill, California, 17 July, 2007

H2H Solutions, Inc. of Wixom, MI and ARX, Inc. of San Francisco, CA, announced today the formation of a collaborative integration effort that is designed to bring CoSign® digital signatures, the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI)-based digital signature product of ARX, to the e-Prescribing world of H2H Digital Rx™, thereby paving the way for establishing a demonstration program that will prove the viability of securely transmitting digitally-signed prescriptions for Scheduled medications (those medications deemed to be controlled substances by the DEA) electronically.

"Today, even when using an e-Prescribing solution, certain Scheduled Drugs require the physician to issue a paper based prescription when they choose to dispense certain Scheduled Drugs for their patients," said Milan Popovich, Chief Marketing Officer for H2H, "which circumvents all the inherent benefits that e-Prescribing Digital Rx can provide to patients, physicians, payers, pharmacists, and regulatory agencies.  The goal with digitally-signed prescriptions is to allow physicians to use e-Prescribing for all types of prescriptions."

Popovich states, "When the regulatory environment was established to provide monitoring and control points relative to dispensing Scheduled drugs, e-Prescribing did not exist.  Physicians today are rapidly adopting the power of Digital Rx to generate all their patients' prescription requirements, with the notable exception of Scheduled drugs.  By integrating the international standards for securely generating and transmitting digital signatures that have been crafted by CoSign into Digital Rx, ARX and H2H intend to present to the DEA an alternative procedure that capitalizes on the inherent benefits of e-Prescribing, while providing assurances to the DEA and pharmacies that any prescription for dispensing Scheduled drugs electronically would have at least the same level of security that exists today by having the patient present a paper-based prescription."  In fact, the benefits of using Digital Rx in concert with CoSign digital signatures provide much greater security and monitoring capabilities than any paper based Rx program can begin to approach.

"ARX is enthusiastic about our partnership and objective with H2H to help eliminate the last of the paper in medicine," said John Marchioni, Vice President of Business Development for ARX.  "With the combination of Digital Rx and CoSign digital signatures, the entire e-Prescriptions-value chain for scheduled drugs has the potential to see needed improvements in prescription integrity and security, while lowering costs without complexity."

Today, physicians are utilizing Digital Rx to produce electronically generated prescriptions that are securely transmitted to the pharmacy of choice for their patients.  Digital Rx provides seamless access to RxHub®, a national repository of formulary, prescription drug history, and eligibility data, covering over 195,000,000 Americans.  Once a physician has completed the electronic prescription in their practice, the Rx is transmitted to the patient’s pharmacy of choice via Sure Scripts™, a national network that encompasses over 98% of all retail pharmacies and chains in the country.

ARX and H2H would like to facilitate the transmission of Scheduled drugs in much the same manner, and will need to convince many stake-holders as to the viability of this new approach.  "H2H is working with the Michigan Association of Health Plans (MAHP), as well as the Michigan Pharmacists Association (MPA) to build a ground swell of support for this initiative," said Popovich.  "The integration efforts between our two companies is already underway, and we anticipate being in a position to deploy a Proof-of-Concept proposal to the DEA within weeks.  We have already secured commitments from physicians, pharmacies and pharmacists to work with us during this initial implementation, with all parties awaiting formal approval from the DEA in order to officially launch the program."

"Once proven to be secure, seamless, and fully integrated with Digital Rx by the DEA, ARX and H2H anticipate delivering this enhanced capability to all physicians using Digital Rx across the country in a matter of weeks," adds Popovich. "We have worked long and hard to establish the viability of e-Prescribing, and hope to eliminate the necessity for physicians to have to revert back to pen and paper when their patients require a Scheduled drug, as is the case today."

Digital Rx by H2H Solutions is a state-of-the-art ASP model e-Prescribing platform designed to provide physicians and staff members with an easy to use, safe, and secure method for producing, and sending prescriptions electronically from any practice.  Digital Rx is certified with RxHub®, which provides physicians with real-time and accurate patient formulary, medication history, and eligibility data.  An extensive real-time drug database assists physicians in insuring that prescriptions being prepared for patients will pose no drug-drug, drug-food, or drug-allergy threats to patients.  Once satisfied with the prescription, a single "click" transmits the Rx electronically to the patient’s preferred pharmacy of choice via Sure Scripts™, a national network that has developed a common communication process with over 98% of all retail pharmacies in the United States.

For more information, visit www.h2hdigitalrx.com/drx/

H2H Solutions, Inc. (Health to Health) has been delivering its own health care IT products and services to the health care industry since 2000.  Headquartered in Wixom, MI, H2H has developed a reputation for delivering customized HIPAA compliance solutions, exemplary IT resources, consultants, and sophisticated health care IT project based work throughout the country.  H2H is a certified minority owned company that has achieved the prestigious CMMI Level 3 Certification, and was recognized by INC. Magazine in 2006 as being the 113th fastest growing privately held company in the country, and the #1 growth IT firm in Michigan.

For more information, visit www.h2hsolutions.com