Aptus Health’s RxStart™ Solution Launches with EHR Partners to Engage Providers and Patients at the Point of Care

READING, MA–(Marketwired – February 20, 2017) – Aptus Health announces that its RxStart solution, a free sample medication and patient support program, has successfully launched with three Electronic Health Record (EHR) and ePrescribing partners — NextGen Healthcare, Office Ally, and NewCrop — and is now enrolling patients. This milestone illustrates strong market interest and adoption of a new solution that offers a quick, convenient way for healthcare providers to introduce eligible patients to recommended treatments, while encouraging them to follow their medication regimen as directed.

The RxStart solution is built right into the provider’s e-prescribing workflow, allowing them to enroll eligible patients in the program and to facilitate delivery of a free trial medication supply directly to the patient’s home. Patients typically receive their free trial supply within 24 hours, along with educational materials and ongoing telephonic patient support. The overall solution is designed to create a more positive experience for new-to-brand patients — helping close gaps in the desired treatment plan between provider and patient.

Partnering with Electronic Health Record vendors offers point-of-care access for providers

Recent data from Decisions Resources Group shows that providers are looking for more value from their EHRs; 40% say they want to see patient assistance programs and one-third of them want to see coupons, vouchers, and/or drug samples in the EHR. Aptus Health’s RxStart solution addresses these needs by embedding prescription and patient support tools within the EHRs of its strategic partners.

“We are pleased to be partnering with these forward-thinking EHR and ePrescription companies. Each of these partners realized early on the benefit of offering free medication trial, home delivery, and personalized patient support as part of the provider’s daily workflow,” said Robert MacMillan, Vice President, EHR and Innovation at Aptus Health. “Now, with these partnerships and integrations in place, together we are extending access to the RxStart solution to approximately 75,000 U.S. providers and their patients.”

For EHR and ePrescribing partners, the RxStart solution is one more way to offer health care solutions to their users. “The RxStart solution is unique in its ability to leverage the power of the EHR workflow to educate, inform, and enroll patients into a program that provides free trial medication for which they are eligible,” said Gene DuAime, VP Life Science & Strategic Alliances of NextGen Healthcare. “It also reflects our continued mission to make our EHR an indispensable tool for ambulatory practitioners.”

“Medical practices today are faced with greater demands to operate more proficiently and to blend quality patient care with strong customer service and an efficient back-room operation,” said Brian O’Neill, president and CEO of Office Ally. “Partnering with Aptus Health to bring our user base this innovative RxStart solution is just one more way we’re helping providers smartly use technology to make their office more efficient while making their lives easier and better serving their patients.”

“We are hearing from our doctors that the RxStart solution is improving their patients’ new medication experience,” said Lawrence Susnow, M.D. Chief Medical Officer at NewCrop. “Our providers appreciate the easy and comprehensive nature of the program, integrated into the prescribing workflow. The program directly addresses compliance issues with the initial free trial, home delivery, and the support of a personalized care plan.”

For more information about joining Aptus Health as a strategic partner, contact info@aptushealth.com.

About Aptus Health

Aptus Health offers health and life sciences companies a truly connected approach to engaging healthcare professionals, consumers and other stakeholders through an array of high-value digital information channels and services. By applying this portfolio of assets — informed by rich engagement data and analytics — Aptus designs and builds integrated multichannel engagement solutions that allow its clients to connect with their customers at key points in their decision-making journeys and impact behavior at scale.

Aptus Health is a wholly-owned subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, New Jersey, U.S.A. (known as MSD outside the United States and Canada) (“Merck”), with its own independent employees, editorial process, business and financial operations, and governance. Aptus Health maintains its information independent from Merck and maintains confidentiality of its customers’ information from Merck. More information can be found at www.AptusHealth.com.

About NextGen Healthcare

NextGen Healthcare, a wholly owned subsidiary of Quality Systems, Inc., helps ambulatory care organizations succeed in value-based care by empowering them to nurture measurably healthier patients and communities at a lower cost. It does this with deep clinical, financial, operational, and regulatory expertise, using consulting and educational services coupled with a robust technology portfolio of flexible, scalable, and cost-effective ambulatory solutions; including a certified EHR, practice management, interoperability, care management, patient engagement and population health management, analytics, e-transaction, and revenue cycle management solutions. For more information, visit www.nextgen.com. Follow NextGen Healthcare on Twitter, Facebook, or LinkedIn.

About Office Ally

Office Ally has been supporting practices with innovative, practical products since its founding in 2000. In 2015 Office Ally experienced another record-setting year, adding 40,000 clients to a total of 330,000 providers now using one or more products provided by Office Ally. All of Office Ally’s products and services are offered at minimal or no cost to providers and are backed by one of healthcare’s largest customer and technical support centers available 24/7. Office Ally’s complete suite of interactive ASP Internet-based solutions includes a patient health registry — Patient Ally™, electronic health records — EHR 24/7™, practice management — Practice Mate™, clearinghouse, OA-Rx e-prescribing and Intake Pro™. Further information may be obtained at www.officeally.com.

About NewCrop

NewCrop is a leading electronic prescribing service and has been deployed in a wide range of EHRs and medical networks since 2003. The company’s user interface allows for rapid installation of fully expedited e-Prescription networking, as well as Meaningful Use certifications, lab integration, secure messaging, registry reporting, DEA-compliant EPCS audit, and more. All services are available as an integrated user interface and/or data services for all individual features, facilitating easy and flexible installations to fast track network and Meaningful Use certifications. Please visit www.newcroprx.com or contact rbarnes@newcroprx.com for more information.

About Merck

For over a century, Merck has been a global health care leader working to help the world be well. Merck is known as MSD outside the United States and Canada. Through our prescription medicines, vaccines, biologic therapies, and animal health products, we work with customers and operate in more than 140 countries to deliver innovative health solutions. We also demonstrate our commitment to increasing access to health care through far-reaching policies, programs and partnerships. For more information, visit www.merck.com and connect with us on Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and LinkedIn.

Forward-Looking Statement of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA

This news release of Merck & Co., Inc., Kenilworth, N.J., USA (the “company”) includes “forward-looking statements” within the meaning of the safe harbor provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements are based upon the current beliefs and expectations of the company’s management and are subject to significant risks and uncertainties. If underlying assumptions prove inaccurate or risks or uncertainties materialize, actual results may differ materially from those set forth in the forward-looking statements.

Risks and uncertainties include but are not limited to, general industry conditions and competition; general economic factors, including interest rate and currency exchange rate fluctuations; the impact of pharmaceutical industry regulation and health care legislation in the United States and internationally; global trends toward health care cost containment; technological advances, new products and patents attained by competitors; challenges inherent in new product development, including obtaining regulatory approval; the company’s ability to accurately predict future market conditions; manufacturing difficulties or delays; financial instability of international economies and sovereign risk; dependence on the effectiveness of the company’s patents and other protections for innovative products; and the exposure to litigation, including patent litigation, and/or regulatory actions.

The company undertakes no obligation to publicly update any forward-looking statement, whether as a result of new information, future events or otherwise. Additional factors that could cause results to differ materially from those described in the forward-looking statements can be found in the company’s 2015 Annual Report on Form 10-K and the company’s other filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) available at the SEC’s Internet site (www.sec.gov).

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