WASHINGTON — Financial incentives for physicians to adopt health information technology (HIT) included in the recent economic stimulus bill will increase the number of prescribers using electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) to more than 75 percent over the next five years—nearly double the rate of use anticipated after passage of last year’s e-prescribing legislation— according to a new study from Visante, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) said today.

The study also found that e-prescribing will help prevent 3.5 million harmful medication errors and save the federal government $22 billion in drug and medical costs over the next 10 years, which more than offsets the projected $19 billion in federal outlays to modernize the nation’s HIT infrastructure under the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA).

“E-prescribing saves lives, lowers costs and will substantially finance the government’s overall HIT investment in the new stimulus law,” said PCMA President and CEO Mark Merritt.

Visante modeled the impact on the adoption of e-prescribing of approximately $19 billion in HIT investments by the federal government, including incentives being paid to physicians and other providers by Medicare and Medicaid, with penalties for non-adopters starting in 2015. Their findings include:

• With increasing adoption under ARRA, e-prescribing alone will save the federal government $22 billion in drug and medical costs during the next 10 years, which more than offsets the government’s anticipated $19 billion investment to modernize the nation’s entire health information technology infrastructure.
• ARRA will increase e-prescribing adoption to more than 75 percent of prescribers in just five years, a more than four-fold increase from the usage rate today, and nearly double the rate anticipated after the passage of MIPPA.
• Under ARRA, e-prescribing will help prevent some 3.5 million serious medication errors known as adverse drug events (ADEs) that would have otherwise sickened, hospitalized, or killed patients over the next ten years.

PCMA represents the nation’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which improve affordability and quality of care through the use of electronic prescribing (e-prescribing), generic alternatives, mail-service pharmacies, and other innovative tools for 200-plus million Americans.

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