Surescripts

Implementation Toolkit
Prescribing Participants

Surescripts Implementation Toolkit

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Table of Contents
Directories ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Directories Overview ................................................................................................................. 3
Directories Implementation Best Practices ................................................................................ 3
Directories Versions .................................................................................................................. 3
Directories Workflow: Adding/Maintaining Prescribers .............................................................. 4
Prescriber Refill Scenarios .................................................................................................... 4
Assigning Prescriber Refill Service Level .............................................................................. 5
Directories Version 4.0 Sample Messages .............................................................................. 8
Transaction Successful AddPrescriberLocationResponse .................................................... 8
Add Prescriber Location with Refill Service Level, No Prescriber match found ..................... 8
Add Prescriber Location with Refill Service Level, Match found, No Refill Service Level
exists on matches .................................................................................................................. 9
Add Prescriber Location with Refill Service Level, Match found, Refill Service Level exists
on matches .......................................................................................................................... 10
Existing Client Upgrade Information ........................................................................................... 11
Prescription Routing ................................................................................................................ 11
Option 1: Keep existing portal, but update portal configuration ........................................... 11
Option 2: Add a new portal where existing portal(s) will continue to run in parallel until
Participant is able to migrate all prescribers/pharmacies records to new portal .................. 12
Upgrading to Directories v4.4 .................................................................................................. 13

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Directories
Directories Overview
Surescripts Directories is an essential component within the array of Surescripts Services.
Directories serve as a centralized repository for maintaining and administering records for those
Participants who transact on the Surescripts network, including pharmacies and prescribers.
The Surescripts network has always maintained pharmacy and prescriber directories for
prescription message routing. As new network Participants are added or information changes,
such as location, new pharmacy and prescriber information must be added to the directory or
the directory must be updated accordingly. And when a pharmacy or prescriber leaves the
network, the directory entry and service level for that Participant must be deactivated.
As new Participants join the Surescripts network, or existing Participants update the types of
transactions they employ on the network, the Surescripts Directories are the platform for
supporting and making available the information needed for directing communication within the
ePrescribing ecosystem.

Directories Implementation Best Practices

Directories are a great place for new Participants to focus their initial implementation efforts.
The information can be maintained and accessed through the Surescripts Admin Console tool,
as well as through a set of web service functions that allow Participants to automate their
updates to the directory database. For those certifying on Prescription Routing, demonstrating
your ability to properly utilize the web service functions is a certification requirement.
NOTE: While the Directories Implementation Guide details the technical specifications
surrounding Directories, this Implementation Toolkit is designed to provide additional
information at a conceptual level. Please be sure to review the latest Directories implementation
guide and XSD file along with this document.

Directories Versions
In 2011, Surescripts released version 4.4 of the Directories service. Participants who previously
certified on version 4.0 may continue to use version 4.0 with the latest Prescription Routing
versions.
However, Participants implementing electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS)
must upgrade and certify on Directories version 4.4 since this version supports the EPCS
functionality. See the Existing Client Upgrade Information: Directories section for more
information on the differences between Directories version 4.0 and 4.4.

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Directories Workflow: Adding/Maintaining Prescribers

Surescripts recognizes prescribers (clinicians registered on the Surescripts network to utilize
certified services) work in varying clinical scenarios, which may include contracting to provide
services with multiple vendors or within multiple service locations. The Surescripts Directory has
been designed to handle such scenarios, which is illustrated in Diagram 1 following this
information.
While the Directories Implementation Guide details the technical specifications surrounding how
these complex scenarios are handled, this section of the Implementation Toolkit is designed to
provide an additional look at the overall workflow process, and specifically the process
surrounding scenarios where prescribers are linked to multiple locations within any given
vendor, or possibly multiple different vendors on the Surescripts network.
Prescriber Refill Scenarios
In scenarios where a prescriber is registered in the Surescripts Directory and activated for Refill
message types under one vendor, and that vendor chooses to activate additional service
locations with Refill capabilities, it is up to the vendor to handle routing those Refill messages to
the appropriate service location internally.
Diagram 1
Prescriber Smith: NewRx
Location A
Prescriber Smith: NewRx, Refill
Location B

Vendor 1
Prescriber Smith: NewRx, Refill
Location C

However, if a prescriber has been previously registered on the Surescripts network to receive
Refill messages, and is added with a request to activate Refill messages under a new/different
vendor, the Prescriber Vendor Release Process shall be followed. Workflow Diagram 2 within
this section details the Prescriber Vendor Release Process, which includes coordination with
both vendors involved to transferring refill activation for the prescriber to be routed to the new
vendor.
Diagram 2

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Assigning Prescriber Refill Service Level

The following Workflow Diagram 1 and Workflow Diagram 2 depict the process for adding a new
prescriber to the Surescripts Directory. These workflows detail the various validations which
occur along with the service level logic that is applied during the add process.

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Workflow Diagram 1

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Workflow Diagram 2

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Directories Version 4.0 Sample Messages

This section provides sample response messages based on various AddPrescriber scenarios.
Transaction Successful AddPrescriberLocationResponse
Prescriber Match Found when message account ID does not match current account ID
associated with prescriber, no refill service level exists on other account.
<Message xmlns="http://www.surescripts.com/messaging"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Header>
<To>mailto:IMPTS2.dp@surescripts.com</To>
<From>mailto:SSSDIR.dp@surescripts.com</From>
<MessageID>7afa2d35970148dda0f2a16b9d2abfbe</MessageID>
<RelatesToMessageID>93ee3e9d8f7a48f6ab9ba2acec216490</RelatesToMessageID>
<SentTime>2010-11-18T19:19:41.3Z</SentTime>
</Header>
<Body>
<AddPrescriberLocationResponse>
<Response>

Add Prescriber Location with Refill Service Level, No Prescriber match found
Currently validation occurs on SPI Root and Last name but not First Name. When adding a
prescriber location if the SPI root provided is incorrect you will see the following message.
When adding a prescriber location with an incorrect last name, Last name does not match will
be displayed. However, when adding a prescriber location with an incorrect first name, the first
name added to directories will be the first name of the prescriber already registered, not the one
given in the message.
<Message xmlns="http://www.surescripts.com/messaging"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Header>
<To>mailto:IMPTS2.dp@surescripts.com</To>
<From>mailto:SSSDIR.dp@surescripts.com</From>
<MessageID>47c64c44fd044aedb6ceb2ab259aa29d</MessageID>
<RelatesToMessageID>29aa9287e4624d0b8a56f657692e5237</RelatesToMessageID>
<SentTime>2010-11-18T21:19:30.9Z</SentTime>
</Header>
<Body>
<Error>
<Code>900</Code>
<DescriptionCode>902</DescriptionCode>
<Description>SPI root does not exist in the SureScripts directories.</Description>
</Error>
</Body>
</Message>

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Add Prescriber Location with Refill Service Level, Match found, No Refill Service Level
exists on matches
Prescriber Match found when SPI Root, First Name and Last Name exist in the directories
under a different account ID, with only a NEW service level.
<Message xmlns="http://www.surescripts.com/messaging"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema">
<Header>
<To>mailto:IMPTS2.dp@surescripts.com</To>
<From>mailto:SSSDIR.dp@surescripts.com</From>
<MessageID>e01e9da773c34545b10bc84a9f9ffde6</MessageID>
<RelatesToMessageID>4f5132639904423dada54d1514da21b1</RelatesToMessageID>
<SentTime>2010-11-19T15:42:35.3Z</SentTime>
</Header>
<Body>
<AddPrescriberLocationResponse>
<Response>
<Approved>
<Note>Prescriber location added successfully</Note>
</Approved>
</Response>
<Prescriber>
<DirectoryInformation>
<PortalID>1650</PortalID>
<AccountID>858</AccountID>
<ServiceLevel>3</ServiceLevel>
<ActiveStartTime>2010-11-19T15:42:35.2Z</ActiveStartTime>
<ActiveEndTime>2090-10-28T21:42:53.0Z</ActiveEndTime>
</DirectoryInformation>
<Identification>
<DEANumber>BZ5950414</DEANumber>
<SPI>6073716006002</SPI>
</Identification>
<Name>
<LastName>Abbott</LastName>
<FirstName>Tony</FirstName>
</Name>
<Address>
<AddressLine1>55 Main Road</AddressLine1>
<City>Albany</City>
<State>DC</State>
<ZipCode>21004</ZipCode>
</Address>
<PhoneNumbers>
<Phone>
<Number>3014345454</Number>
<Qualifier>TE</Qualifier>
</Phone>
<Phone>
<Number>3012232222</Number>
<Qualifier>FX</Qualifier>
</Phone>
</PhoneNumbers>
</Prescriber>

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</AddPrescriberLocationResponse>
</Body>
</Message>

Add Prescriber Location with Refill Service Level, Match found, Refill Service Level
exists on matches
Prescriber Match found when SPI Root, First Name and Last Name exist in the directories
under a different account ID, with only a NEW service level.
<Message xmlns="http://www.surescripts.com/messaging" version="1.5">
<Header>
<To>mailto:IMPTS2.dp@surescripts.com</To>
<From>mailto:SSSDIR.dp@surescripts.com</From>
<MessageID>0</MessageID>
<RelatesToMessageID>ca09709fb1df43e2b4def97b6507f500</RelatesToMessageID>
<SentTime>2010-11-18T21:15:53.3Z</SentTime>
</Header>
<Body>
<Error>
<Code>900</Code>
<DescriptionCode>902</DescriptionCode>
<Description>Not authorized to add prescriber with the given service level</Description>
</Error>
</Body>
</Message>

At this point, in production, a prescribing vendor wishing to add refill service levels to prescribers
already registered with refill service levels on other accounts would have to complete the
Prescriber Vendor Release Form, found in SalesForce (see Directories Workflow Diagram 2 for
details of this Prescriber Vendor Release Process).

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Existing Client Upgrade Information

Prescription Routing
Prescription Routing allows for two types of upgrade options. Each Participant should review
the pros and cons for each option before Surescripts makes any changes to the Participants
account and portal settings.
Option 1: Keep existing portal, but update portal configuration
This option is a big bang or hard cutover approach. Even though this option will impact the
Participant immediately migration of prescribers/pharmacy records to new portals is not
required.
Items to consider:
Requires coordination between the Participant and Surescripts Support in order to
ensure the Participants code release and Surescripts portal configuration changes are
made at the same time.
When a Participants new portal configuration is activated all transactions must flow in to
the Surescripts network on the new schema version format in real-time.
Participant incoming/outgoing URLs, basic authentication credentials, and portal
identifying information will remain unchanged.
Preferred by Participants with an ASP model.
Example: Participant is on Prescription Routing v4.20 and has just certified on Prescription
Routing v10.6. The Participant will release their certified v10.6 code in to their Production
environment on July 1st at midnight. This date and time has been coordinated with Surescripts
Support. Surescripts Support will change the Participants portal from processing Prescription
Routing v4.20 to where the portal will process all transactions under Prescription Routing v10.6
on July 1st at midnight. The Participant does not have to manage message versioning in to the
network, migration of users or their Surescripts portal settings.
Figure 1 Updating a portal configuration

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Option 2: Add a new portal where existing portal(s) will continue to run in parallel until
Participant is able to migrate all prescribers/pharmacies records to new portal
This option allows for a migration or phased approach. There may be times when a Participant,
such as those with a client based model, must release several code sets. Even though this
option does not force a hard cutover, Participants must manage the migration of their
prescriber/pharmacy records.
Items to consider:
Surescripts can create and activate a new portal before the Participants code is released
since the Participant will manage the migration of users from the old portal over to the
new portal.
When a Participants new portal is activated the Participant will manage user migration,
the transaction message version that flows in to the Surescripts network, inbound to
Surescripts URLs and portal IP and basic authentication credentials.
Participant incoming/outgoing URLs, basic authentication credentials, and portal
identifying information will be unique per portal.
Preferred by Participants with a client based model that requires the Participant to
support multiple software versions.
Example: Participant is on Prescription Routing v4.20 and has just certified on Prescription
Routing v10.6. The Participant will release their certified v10.6 code in to their Production
environment on July 1st at midnight. This date and time has been coordinated with Surescripts
Support. Surescripts Support will provide the Participants v10.6 portal information prior to or at
this date and time. The Participant will move some users/pharmacies to the v10.6 portal using
the directory update web service calls. The Participant will then manage message versioning in
to the network, on-going migration of users and their various Surescripts portal settings.
Figure 2 Parallel portals

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Upgrading to Directories v4.4

Participants that are going through a Prescription Routing effort should certify on the latest
Directory version that is available on the network. For those upgrading to Directories v4.4 the
following must be considered:
1. Account Level Changes
a. Directories flat file export version is set at an account level. Changing the
version is a hard cutover so it will impact the Participant the following day, when
the next directory file is generated.
b. Requires coordination between the Participant and Surescripts in order to ensure
the Participants code release and Surescripts account changes are made at the
same time.
c. Participant may access files manually via the admin console.
2. Portal Level Changes
a. All Participants will send all directory messages to a new URL or dedicated
Surescripts Directories v4.4 portal. Refer to your connectivity form for the new
URL and IP information.
b. Participants must send Directory message in the new v4.4 format and meet the
v4.4 required criteria and validations (i.e. NPI must be in the Luhn check digit
format).
c. New data provider ID

Figure 3 Parallel Portals and Updated Data Provider ID

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