e-Prescribing gathers momentum 20-January-2009 E-Prescribing Gathers Momentum If you’re like the majority of physicians, you don’t prescribe electronically and you don’t see why you should. After all, what’s wrong with the old prescription pad that has served you well over the years? But citing safety, quality, and efficiency, the government, private insurers, and some medical societies want you to change your mind. This month, a CMS initiative will start adding 2 percent to your Medicare payments if you prescribe electronically. The incentive drops to 1 percent in 2011 and 2012 and to 0.5 percent in 2013. Starting in 2012, CMS will pay you 1 percent less than its fee schedule if you don’t e-prescribe; that penalty will rise to 1.5 percent in 2013 and to 2 percent in 2014 and every year thereafter. Speaking at a recent conference in Washington, D.C., CMS acting administrator Kerry Weems said he was confident that the incentive “changes the business case enough that we’ll see investments made in e-prescribing. We also think some private payers will come along with us.” But with standalone e-prescribing systems priced at around $3,000, plus monthly maintenance fees, observers are divided on whether the CMS incentive alone will be sufficient to get doctors to adopt e-prescribing. Bruce Merlin Fried, a Washington, D.C., healthcare attorney and health IT policy expert, is one of those who think that it will: “The incentive will have an enormous impact on doctors moving toward e-prescribing.” The penalty on the back end, he adds, will convince many other physicians to do the same. See full BLOG on Healthcarenews.com: |
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