DMEscripts Announces Strategic Partnership Across DME Industry to Accelerate e-Prescribe Adoption

WASHINGTON, D.C. (September 8, 2021)—Leaders of the durable medical equipment (DME) industry announced the formation of DMEscripts LLC, an independent e-prescribe company dedicated to improving the patient, prescriber and provider experience by eliminating inefficiencies and reducing paperwork. The new venture is being formed by a group of investors that includes the American Association for Homecare (AAHomecare), VGM & Associates, Ltd., AdaptHealth, LLC., Apria Healthcare Group LLC, Lincare Inc. and Rotech Healthcare Inc. DMEscripts aims to drastically improve the current order-to-delivery process by empowering and accelerating the widespread adoption of an electronic ordering application for DME.

DMEscripts will combine the thought leadership and resources of all founding members, as well as leverage other unique insights of industry experts in digital health, to administer an industry-owned, operated and managed e-prescribe platform. DMEscripts will utilize proprietary e-prescribe software to operate an open network for any DME supplier to join at no cost to prescribers or patients. The founding investors also expect to welcome investment by other industry participants in ownership of a platform that will create a smoother, simpler, more efficient, and less costly ordering process for healthcare prescribers and suppliers designed to eliminate unnecessary delays in the processing and delivery of critical home therapy devices and therapies to patients who are often in dire need thereof.

“Health care is transforming rapidly, and digital access to care is becoming increasingly important,” said Dan Starck, Apria’s chief executive officer and chairperson of the DMEscripts board of directors. “Digital technology has implications for every aspect of healthcare, from the clinical to the operational. Collaborating with our founding partners will help deliver leading-edge expertise and assistance to our members as they advance on the digital journey ahead.”

At the intersection of this new alliance is DMEscripts’ proprietary e-prescribe software, which results in greater than 95% of the orders accepted the first time and makes it surprisingly simple to:

• Remove the rework of the current fax-based ordering process,
• Track orders from submission to delivery,
• Integrate with both electronic health records and billing systems, and
• Securely message between prescriber and supplier.

“I am thrilled at the collective energy of fellow industry leaders in embracing this digital transformation, with an industry-owned platform for electronically prescribing, tracking, and fulfilling DME orders,” said Crispin Teufel, chief executive officer of Lincare. “This has tremendously positive implications, particularly for the patients we serve.”

“This is an important step forward for the DME community, as well as for the clinicians and referral sources we work with every day,” said Thomas Ryan, president and chief executive officer of the American Association for Homecare. “The wide-scale adoption of e-prescribe can provide for considerable efficiency improvements for all DME suppliers, thereby strengthening the industry as a whole.”