Wolters Kluwer Health, a provider of information for healthcare professionals and students, has announced that its Medi-Span Controlled Substances Drug File has been selected by Health Market Science (HMS) for integration with its Prescriber Eligibility (PE) solution.

The enhanced solution will provide the industry with near real-time validation of prescriptive authority for scheduled drugs at the US state and territory level to reduce the risk of regulatory fines and improve third party reimbursement rates, including Medicaid.

Medi-Span has been a leading provider of comprehensive drug information and drug interaction database solutions for more than 35 years.

The controlled substances file can be implemented to assist pharmacists in dispensing settings to meet mandatory compliance with US regulations of controlled substances by providing regulation schedules, Prescription Drug Monitoring Program (PDMP), and Automation of Reports and Consolidated Orders System (ARCOS) in one data resource.

Health Market Science's PE solution ensures real-time, point-of-service compliance checks against all submitted pharmacy claims before they are transmitted to payers. PE leverages data from the HMS Provider MasterFile a database of 8 million healthcare practitioners, nearly half a million healthcare organizations as well as the affiliations between them.

Health Market Science pharmacy and government sales senior vice president Craig Ford noted by integrating Medi-Span's controlled substances module, Prescriber Eligibility customers will have ready access to state-level drug schedules for prescriber verification.

"With the escalating scrutiny on controlled substance prescribing, this solution enhancement will ensure controlled substance prescriptions are properly verified according to state regulations," Ford added.

Integration of the Medi-Span data with HMS's PE solution is planned in the early half of 2014.