ALEXANDRIA, VA – The Senate’s passage of a bill giving Medicare the ability to reward physicians who adopt e-prescribing technology certainly brought smiles to the faces of Rick Ratliff and J.P. Little. And those two have had a lot to smile about lately.

Prior to the Senate’s July 9 vote, the healthcare industry was abuzz with news of the merger of Ratliff’s SureScripts and Little’s RxHub, announced just a week earlier. SureScripts, based in Alexandria, Va., and owned by the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the national Community Pharmacists Association, routes prescriptions to pharmacies. RxHub, based in St. Paul, Minn. and owned by CVS Caremark, Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions, sends prescriptions to mail-order firms and also provides insurance coverage information.

The merger will make it possible for healthcare providers to route prescriptions electronically to the pharmacy chosen by their patients, while also providing secure electronic access to prescription information.

The two CEOs are jointly running the merged company, called SureScripts-RxHub for the time being. The search is under way for a new CEO to run the company, as well as a new name for the company.

“It seemed like this was the right time,” said Ratliff of the merger, which will link physicians, pharmacies and benefit managers under one network. “We need to have a common infrastructure, a common platform for technology … and standards to make this work,” added Ratliff.