Price Updates From Cardinal To RxLink

Step One: Export the latest price data from Cardinal Choice

  1. Start Cardinal
  2. Choose Reports, Report Writer from the pull down menu at the top of the screen.


  1. Find the report called RxLink and click on it, then click RUN.


4. You will see a small message box in the upper right-hand corner of the screen that indicztes that it is creating “ASCII SDF File C:\RxLink” - this may take a few minutes to run. Do Not Interrupt.

  1. Once the report is done, this small message box will disappear. This finishes the Cardinal portion of the price update.
  2. If the computer with Cardinal on it is also the computer that RxLink is on then you do not need to transfer the file. If you do need to tranfer the file then you should go to the desktop and click on the icon “Transfer Price File” which will attempt to ZIP the price file to a floppy diskette. (See steps below in “If you need to transfer the file”.

Updating the drug file in RxLink with the Cardinal data

  1. Sign onto RxLink normally and go to menu choice 244, press PgDn to get to the Cardinal Choices
  2. You will see the screen below. To import the data that was exported by Cardinal, choose option 91 to import the prices.

  1. Press F2 after hitting 91 and you will see a number count at the top of screen as the drug data is imported into RxLink. When done you will see the same menu 244.

3. Then press PgDn again and choose 95 from this menu to actually update the prices in the drug master. Just press F2 when you see the screen below:

  1. When this report finishes you will be back to menu 244. At this point all of the records in the drug master with an NDC# that matches ANY record from Cardinal will have been updated with the latest AWP, contract price, Order Number, etc.
  2. The only step left is to have RxLink take your pricing formulas and apply them to the drug records in order to calculate the actual price to charge the patient per dose.
  3. This is done by choosing Menu Choice 674, Update Prices Charged to Patient.
  1. The first time you run this, the defaults will pretend to make the change, and print a summary of what the prices WOULD BE CHANGED TO.
  1. Review the printout, looking for “odd” “wayout” prices to insure that all of the drug package sizes are in RxLink correctly. If you find a price that would jump from the old price of say, $5.00 up to a new price of $500.00 then the package size is likely off. Go to the record in the drug master and fix the problem(s).
  2. Then run 674, and change the default for the field titled: “Enter N to print a test list of pt.charges.” to be a “Y”. This will cause the price fields in the drug master to REALLY/ACTUALLY be updated. Again, verify the printout before passing it on to DataProcessing.
  3. The data must be transported into the business office computer in order to affect the actual billing.

Creating the Report in Cardinal Choice Version 8.x to export price data. You only need to do this once!

  1. In Cardinal Choice, at the opening screen, choose Reports/Report Write from the pull-down menu at the top of the screen. (As in #2 above)
  2. Choose “NEW”
  3. Choose “OK”
  4. When the following screen appears, it wants to know the name of the report and a brief description for the report. Call the report “RXLINK” , give it a description of “Export price changes for RxLink”, by typing these into the appropriate fields:


And then click on the small button just beneath the Name, which is the DATA ITEMS detail option.


You must choose each item you see in the right-hand window below, from the left-hand window y scrolling up and down, and double-clicking on that item (in the left window). When clicked it will appear in the right hand window. It must be in the same order as you see below!

When all 7 items hae been selected into the right window, click on the OK button at the bottom right of the screen.

Click on the button titled OUTPUT, and you will see:


Choose an Output Type of ASCII (if it is not already displayed) by clicking on the downarrow at the right edge of the field and scrolling down, clicking on it.


Make sure the field to the right of the Output Type indicates “SDF (fixed length)”.

At the bottom is an option to SEND TO , choose the circle by “File” by clicking on it.

At the following screen, type a file destination of “C:\RxLink” and click on SAVE.


You will see the following, and choose HARD CODED and click on OK:


Click on OK again, then choose SAVE AS , Click OK, and then CLOSE.

You are now ready to run this report.

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