Medco, Wal-Mart Merging Electronic Prescription Networks

Medco Health Systems, CVS Caremark Corp. and Express Scripts Inc., the three largest managers of U.S. pharmacy plans, will merge their electronic drug prescription network with one operated by a group of drugstore chains that includes Wal-Mart Stores Inc.

The merged network expects to transmit 100 million drug orders this year via computer, accelerating the nation's move toward paperless prescribing, said Rick Ratliff, acting chief executive officer of SureScripts, one of the two services. Benefits managers will get the chance to steer more patients toward lower-cost generic or mail-order drugs, while pharmacies save the cost and time of deciphering poorly written prescriptions

[private sector]

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