If you prescribe specialty medications or work in a clinic that does, there’s a good chance you are familiar with the MSOT process. Whether you are looking to understand what MSOT is, or looking for ways to streamline the process for your team, we have you covered.
Here is some basic information about MSOT, as well as insights from our pharmacy experts on how you can use Arrive Health technology to reduce the administrative burden of the MSOT process.
What is MSOT in an electronic health record?
Multistep order transmittal, commonly referred to as MSOT, is an Epic work queue functionality that supports pharmacy teams in reviewing prescription orders, confirming patient coverage, clearing restrictions, and selecting a pharmacy for fulfillment.
When a provider orders medications that are designated on a health system’s pre-defined MSOT list, the order automatically gets routed to the MSOT work queue, before it is sent to a pharmacy. Typically, a health system or clinic has dedicated MSOT resources to manage this work queue.
How does the MSOT process typically work?
MSOT teams facilitate specialty medication enrollment using a process which requires a large amount of administrative work. Some of the manual tasks MSOT teams complete include:
- Identifying clinic locations where MSOT workflows should be enabled
- Maintaining a specific list of high-value specialty medications that need to be routed to the MSOT queue for benefits investigation and fulfillment
- Managing the MSOT work queue to:
- Confirm pharmacy options, including convenient locations for the patient
- Identify payer restrictions, including prior authorizations, dosage, or formulary coverage limitations
- Research available medication alternatives
- Balance prescriber and patient therapy and/or pharmacy preference
- Communicate with patients about enrollment, restrictions, and next steps
What are the biggest challenges MSOT teams face?
The current MSOT process involves a large amount of manual administrative work. For every drug included on the MSOT-defined list, the MSOT team has to investigate pharmacy and coverage options. This process often requires multiple phone calls with the pharmacy, patient, and provider in order to determine if the medication can be filled as ordered or if re-prescribing is required.
Time spent on these tasks affects clinical team productivity as well as patient experience in the form of time spent making phone calls and/or re-prescribing. This can also lead to delays in getting a prescription ordered, fulfilled, and ready for the patient to pick-up.
How to improve the MSOT process
Improving the MSOT process is possible with new approaches that leverage patient-specific cost and coverage information. In doing so, you can reduce the administrative burden associated with manual tasks. Arrive Health’s provider and care team tools help streamline the MSOT workflow and confirmation process in distinct ways.
We make it possible for providers to:
- View and select ideal pharmacy options at the point-of-care, reducing downstream MSOT rework
- Confirm patient and pharmacy coverage, reducing MSOT test claim volumes, investigation of pharmacy availability, and patient communications
- Bypass the MSOT investigation process altogether, in some cases, by selecting covered medication and pharmacy options
We support MSOT teams by giving them tools to:
- Capture more prescription orders at retail, mail-order, or specialty pharmacies
- Gain access to coverage, cost, and pharmacy availability details
- Identify interim covered care options while working through the clearance process for an MSOT medication, driving speed-to-therapy and patient engagement
Support your MSOT team and the patient experience with Arrive Health
If your MSOT team is overwhelmed with administrative tasks, now is a good time to connect with Arrive Health to learn what options are available to reduce unnecessary burden. Contact a member of our team to learn more about how we can help support your MSOT process and the patient experience.
