The History of SCRIPT Standards

Ken Whittemore, MBA: In order for e-prescribing systems to work, there has to be an agreed upon language that can be used. And what that is for the e-prescribing system in the United States is known as the NCPDP SCRIPT Standard. NCPDP is an organization that’s created a number of different standards over the years—originally the universal claim form, and later on the electronic billing standard. And about 20 years ago, the members of that organization decided that a standard was going to be necessary in order to transmit prescriptions electronically. And that’s how the NCPDP SCRIPT Standard got started.