SMART FORMULARY SEARCH - HELP

PURPOSE OF THIS SITE
The Smart Formulary Search website is intended to enable users to identify prescription drugs which are covered in the drug formulary of the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.
This site displays information relating to the drugs within the formulary and the preferred drug list, but does not provide any means for users to add or modify information.

IMPORTANT LINKS AND ALERTS
A section near the top of the screen provides access to various documents and web pages related to the Texas Medicaid drug formulary.
Simply select any description in this list to view the document or page referenced.

METHODS OF SEARCHING FOR DRUG INFORMATION
Three general methods of searching for drugs are provided on this site
On the Drug Name screen, users may search by a partial or full drug name. This screen also provides the option to list all drugs where the name begins with a particular character (0 through 9 or A through Z), by clicking the appropriate button. A Therapy Class screen is provided to permit searching for drugs by their standard therapeutic classifications. By this means, for example, a list of all Cardiovascular Drugs in this formulary can be displayed. If you limit your search by specifying a sub-class of Cardiovascular Drugs, you will see a shorter list of results. Adding the selection of lower-level sub classes will further reduce the list of results returned by a search.
The Top 100 by Specialty screen provides lists of the most-prescribed drugs for a limited number of medical specialties. The information displayed is based on the most recent six-month period for which Texas HHSC claims are available.

DRUG NAME SEARCH
On the first tab of this site, users may search by drug name. If you know the exact name of the drug, you may type the name then click the Search button to see information on that drug. If you are uncertain of the spelling of the name, enter a partial name - at least three characters - then click Search. This method is likely to return more drugs than you wanted to see, but should return the one you want as long as the partial name is accurate.
Also on the first tab, you have the option to list all drugs where the name begins with a particular character (0 through 9 or A through Z), by clicking the appropriate button.
Search results are always listed alphabetically by drug name, and include the formulary status and any clinical edits that are associated with each drug.
See DISPLAYING MORE INFORMATION for instructions to display dose information for each drug, and see PRINTING SEARCH RESULTS for information on printing lists of drugs. These sections describe functions available on all three screens.

THERAPY CLASS SEARCH
This screen provides a means to select drugs based on their therapeutic classifications within the American Hospital Formulary Service framework.
The drug classifications are specified through a series of list boxes arranged from left to right across this screen. The first list box always displays a complete list of the primary therapeutic classes. When a selection is made in the first list box, any highest-level sub-classes associated with that class will be listed in the second list box, labeled Sub Class (2). If there are no sub-classes for the selected primary class, your only option is to click the Search button, unless you change your primary-class selection.
When sub-classes are listed in the second box, you may choose to click the Select button to see a list of all drugs within the primary therapeutic class. Or you may choose to select a highest-level sub-class in the second list box. If you select a sub-class in this box, then any next-level sub-classes will be listed in the third list box. Again, you have a choice of Searching for all drugs within the selected classifications or making a selection in the next list to focus your search.
When you have specified the classes and sub-classes to limit your search, clicking the Search button will cause the display of those drugs in the formulary that coincide with the class/sub-class selections.
Remember that the AHFS classification framework includes a variable sub-class structure under each primary class. In some cases, there are no secondary classes. Often, you will find there are no sub-classes at the lower levels.

TOP 100 by SPECIALTY SEARCH
Use the drop-down list to find the available specialties. After selecting a specialty, you may click the Search button to see the Top 100 drug list associated with that specialty.
The drug lists on this screen include a Frequency Prescribed column, to let you know the relative frequency of prescriptions for these drugs. Also, this screen is the only place drug names are not listed alphabetically, because they are listed by frequency here.

DISPLAYING MORE INFORMATION
The list of drugs returned from your searches will often be too long to fit on the screen. When this is the case, you will see links at the bottom of the display to the other pages within your current search results. Simply click on those links to view other pages of your list.
Whenever you have search results displayed on any of the above screens, you will be able to see the drug strengths available within the formulary by clicking the + (plus) sign to the left of a drug name.
If you wish to remove the strength listing for a drug, you may do so by clicking the - (minus) sign to the left of the drug name.
If clinical edit information pertains to a particular drug, the name of the clinical edit will appear at the right of the display. Simply click on the clinical-edit name to view the description associated with that edit for the Texas HHSC formulary.

PRINTING SEARCH RESULTS
Whenever you have search results displayed, you may use the Print button to display a "print preview" of your entire current list of search results with all available strengths for each drug within the formulary. Then you may use your browser´s print capability to print the list.