Voice Recognition Offers Pharmacists Quicker Responses

Anthem Prescription Management has a new service available for retail pharmacists in the Anthem network. Anthem's voice response unit (VRU) allows pharmacists to more quickly and easily verify their patients' prescription benefits and eligibility and get answers to other questions.

The VRU prompts allow callers to request service options by saying what they want, instead of using touch-tone telephone options. Keypads on mobile devices are getting smaller, making it harder for users to push buttons to select services.

"The transition from touch-tone applications to VRU is reducing the volume of inquiries that opt out of the automated customer service phone system, which means more pharmacists are getting their questions answered and needs addressed with one phone call," said Jim Martin, director of the company's customer service. "The efficiency that this technology brings to our operation saves our customers money, too. Our network pharmacists report that ?refill-too-soon' authorizations are faster and easier using VRU options."