Emdeon Business Services has recently processed its one billionth pharmacy claim for the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Emdeon has been providing services to the DoD as a sub- contractor to New York Stock Exchange listed CSC, the DoD's primary contractor since 1999.

Emdeon created its Pharmacy Data Transaction Service (PDTS) exclusively for the DoD. This is a centralized data repository of drug claims. Emdeon's milestone of one billion claims comes after nearly a decade of providing its service to the DoD.

Emdeon's PDTS was one of only seven finalists in the 2002 President's Quality Award program, for which 100 federal government programs competed. It was also selected by Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government as a semifinalist for the prestigious 2002 Innovations in American Government Award.

PDTS processes an average of 15.4 million pharmacy transactions monthly for the 9.3 million beneficiaries of TRICARE, the U.S. military health plan. PDTS handles prospective drug-use review, in addition to providing real-time verification of eligibility, drug coverage, quantity limits, co-pay levels, and deductible/maximum benefit balances, as well as facilitating pharmacy reimbursement.

"We have also developed technology to support coordination of benefits, Medicare Part D, and NPI, and we will continue to enhance our systems to support the goals of the DoD," says John Long, Emdeon's senior VP.