Health care industry experts expect recent policy changes to spur more physicians to start prescribing medications electronically in the coming years, the Wall Street Journal reports.
Trends in E-Prescribing
A recent report from the electronic prescribing network Surescripts found that the number of prescriptions submitted electronically increased from 68 million in 2008 to 191 million in 2009. According to Surescripts, about 25% of all office-based physicians have the technology necessary to e-prescribe.
Policy Changes
Last year, CMS started providing physicians with incentive payments for e-prescribing. Starting in 2012, CMS will begin penalizing physicians that have not adopted e-prescribing systems.
Meanwhile, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s new final rule easing restrictions on e-prescribing for controlled substances is expected to contribute to an uptick in e-prescriptions. The rule allows physicians to e-prescribe for most medications, rather than maintain a separate paper process for controlled substances.
Concerns
Some health care providers and experts have cautioned that e-prescribing does involve certain risks.
For example, some physicians have reported prescription errors that resulted from pressing the wrong computer key when filling out drug and dosage information (Martin, Wall Street Journal, 4/20).
Above article publish on http://www.eprescriptionservices.com/eprescribing-expected-rise-wake-dea-rule-cms-incentives/
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