Systems and methods for notifying of duplicate product prescriptions

1. A method for processing prescriptions, comprising:

receiving, by a service provider computer, a healthcare transaction that identifies a current prescribed product, a patient, and a current prescriber who prescribed the current prescribed product;

retrieving, by the service provider computer, patient history for the patient;

determining, by the service provider computer, based at least in part on the patient history:

that the patient has previously received a previous equivalent product that is equivalent to the current prescribed product identified in the healthcare transaction, and

an identity of a previous prescriber of the previous equivalent product;

determining that the previous prescriber is different from the current prescriber and that the previous prescriber and the current prescriber are not professionally associated;

transmitting a notification to at least one of: (a) the previous prescriber; (b) the current prescriber; (c) a pharmacy; or (d) the patient, wherein the notification identifies potential duplicate products; and

prior to transmitting the notification, analyzing the patient history for the patient to identify that the previous equivalent product was dispensed to the patient less than a predetermined period of time prior to a date associated with the healthcare transaction request.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification is transmitted to the previous prescriber.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining that the patient has previously received the previous equivalent product comprises comparing the current prescribed product to stored data indicating a plurality of equivalent products, wherein equivalent products are determined based at least in part on at least one of: (a) one or more active ingredients of the respective products; (b) therapeutic effects provided by the respective products; (c) conditions treated by the respective products, (d) dosage; (e) strength; or (f) chemical equivalency of the respective products.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification is a first notification, and further comprising transmitting a second notification to at least one of: (a) the other of the previous prescriber or the current prescriber; (b) a monitoring authority; (c) a pharmacy computer; (d) the patient; or (e) law enforcement.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification is transmitted via one of: (a) an email; (b) a facsimile; (c) a text message; (d) a network-based message; (e) an Internet-based message; (f) mailed correspondence; or (g) a telephonic notification.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein the healthcare transaction is received from a first pharmacy computer for dispensing the current prescribed product at a first pharmacy, and wherein the previous equivalent product was dispensed to the patient at a second pharmacy not associated with the first pharmacy.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the healthcare transaction is received from a first pharmacy computer for dispensing the current prescribed product at a first pharmacy, and wherein the previous equivalent product was dispensed to the patient at the first pharmacy.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the notification comprises an identity of the patient, an identity of the previous equivalent product, a date associated with the previous equivalent product, an identity of the current prescribed product, and a date associated with the current prescribed product.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the healthcare transaction comprises one of: (a) an electronic prescription order received from a prescriber computer; or (b) a prescription claim request received from a pharmacy computer.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the patient history is maintained by the service provider computer.

11. The method of claim 1 , further comprising updating the patient history for the patient with information associated with the current prescribed product.

12. A system, comprising:

at least one memory for storing computer-executable instructions; and

at least one processor configured to access the memory and further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to:

receive a healthcare transaction that identifies a current prescribed product, a patient, and a current prescriber who prescribed the current prescribed product;

retrieve patient history for the patient;

determine, based at least in part on the patient history, that the patient has previously received a previous equivalent product equivalent to the current prescribed product identified in the healthcare transaction and an identity of a previous prescriber for the previous equivalent product;

determine that the previous prescriber is different from the current prescriber and that the previous prescriber and the current prescriber are not professionally associated; and

transmit a notification to at least one of: (a) the previous prescriber; (b) the current prescriber; (c) a pharmacy; or (d) the patient, wherein the notification identifies potential duplicate products,

wherein, prior to transmitting the notification, the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to analyze the patient history for the patient to identify that the previous equivalent product was dispensed to the patient less than a predetermined period of time prior to a date associated with the healthcare transaction request.

13. The system of claim 12 , wherein the notification is transmitted to the previous prescriber.

14. The system of claim 12 , wherein the memory further comprises stored data indicating a plurality of equivalent products, wherein equivalent products are determined based at least in part on at least one of: (a) one or more active ingredients of the respective products; (b) therapeutic effects provided by the respective products; (c) conditions treated by the respective products, (d) dosage; (e) strength; or (f) chemical equivalency of the respective products.

15. The system of claim 12 , wherein the notification is transmitted via one of: (a) an email; (b) a facsimile; (c) a text message; (d) a network-based message; (e) an Internet-based message; (f) mailed correspondence; or (g) a telephonic notification.

16. The system of claim 12 , wherein the healthcare transaction is received from a first pharmacy computer for dispensing the current prescribed product at a first pharmacy, and wherein the previous equivalent product was dispensed to the patient at one of: (a) a second pharmacy not associated with the first pharmacy; or (b) the first pharmacy.

17. The system of claim 12 , wherein the healthcare transaction comprises one of: (a) an electronic prescription order received from a prescriber computer; or (b) a prescription claim request received from a pharmacy computer.

18. The system of claim 12 , wherein the at least one processor is further configured to execute the computer-executable instructions to update the patient history for the patient with information associated with the current prescribed product.