MGMA Seeks Revisions to E-Prescribing, EHR Incentive Pay Policies

This week, the Medical Group Management Association sent a letter to CMS urging the agency to modify provisions of its proposed 2011 physician fee schedule relating to the electronic prescription and electronic health record programs, Modern Healthcare reports (Lubell, Modern Healthcare, 8/25).
The letter comments on CMS’ proposed rules for the Medicare Part B physician fee [...]

eRx rate in NY state to see ‘explosive growth’

ROCHESTER, NY – The electronic prescribing rate in upstate New York increased from 12 percent in 2009 to 17 percent in the first quarter of 2010, representing 3.6 million new and renewed prescriptions on an annual basis, according to a new report. The report suggests that this number will grow significantly as the result of [...]

Report on E-Prescribing in New York Predicts Growth in Technology

The rate of electronic prescribing in upstate New York increased from 12% in 2009 to 17% in the first quarter of this year, a new report by Excellus BlueCross BlueShield found, Healthcare IT News reports (Merrill, Healthcare IT News, 7/15).
The report also concluded that the percentage of physicians across the U.S. who use the technology [...]

More Doctors Are Prescribing Medicines Online

By Timothy W. Martin
Doctors are increasingly prescribing medications electronically, abandoning the traditional paper scripts that can result in drug errors due to hard-to-read writing or coverage denials by a patient’s insurer.
The number of e-prescriptions nearly tripled last year to 191 million from the previous year’s 68 million, representing about 12% of the 1.63 billion original [...]

Electronic Prescriptions Reduce Errors by Seven-Fold

Weill Cornell Medical College-Led Study Is One of the First to Compare E-Prescriptions to Handwritten Prescriptions in Community-Based Practices

Should doctors around the country use e-prescribing to decrease prescription errors? A study led by physician-scientists from Weill Cornell Medical College found that health care providers using an electronic system to write prescriptions were seven [...]

Medicare bonus to push e-prescribing beginning in 2009: average reward pegged at $2,000-$3,000.

by Mahoney, Diana
“E-prescribing saves lives, it saves money, and it’s time we implement it,” according to Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt.
Streamlining the bloated health care system “is an economic imperative for our country. We have to get down to making the system better, and [e-prescribing] is one piece of a large puzzle,” [...]

Study urges action to get patients to follow prescriptions

By Elizabeth Cooney
Patients who do not take their medications as prescribed pay a price in poorer health, more frequent hospitalizations, and a higher risk of death. Collectively, they also incur up to $290 billion annually in increased medical costs, according to a Boston-based health policy group that urges making the issue part of the [...]

Interoperable Electronic Prescribing In The United States: A Progress Report

Maria A. Friedman, Anthony Schueth and Douglas S. Bell

Abstract
Although the vast majority of U.S. physicians still handwrite prescriptions, adoption of electronic prescribing is slowly growing. Major barriers to adoption remain, including the inability to electronically submit prescriptions for controlled substances and confusion about standards for data exchange. Federal and state governments and [...]

HHS Issues Privacy Guidance Promising to Rule by Reason

The Department of Health and Human Services (”HHS”) issued comprehensible, no surprises guidance under the final HIPAA privacy rule that went into effect on April 14, 2001. From the perspective of all but the health care provider community, the guidance was pretty much a nonevent; HHS addresses issues that are primarily of relevance to providers. [...]

E-prescribing gains traction in Michigan

by Mark Sanchez | Business Review Western Michigan

He gave up the paper pad four years ago and now only writes prescriptions for patients electronically.

While Dr. Richard Smith can’t specifically quantify the results, he knows without any doubt that e-prescribing has generated efficiencies in his medical practice.

“As you accept it [...]