(2007-11-27) Leavitt Pushing Online Prescribing

Mike Leavitt wants to push Online Prescribing on doctors. At the AHIC meeting, we announced standards that will help to get us there. We are starting with standards for providing medication history and for formularies so that providers have the information they need to write correct prescriptions. These two standards alone could go a long way to eliminating errors. Most doctors haven't invested in the necessary technology to do e-prescribing... This fall, we eliminated the capacity for providers who have an e-prescribing tool to fax prescriptions paid for by Medicare to pharmacies. That has motivated some to use electronic systems. However, we need to do more, I think, including using our power as a payer to motivate the change... Large health care providers, including Medicare and Medicaid, need to move toward making it a mandatory part of medical practice soon.

Dec06: one barrier is that you currently have to do paper records for prescribing controlled substances (e.g. Rital In). Kevin Hutchinson said that many physicians and pharmacists say the administrative burden of maintaining two processes - one for e-prescribing and paper for controlled substances - is too great... Other findings of the Sure Scripts report show that in 2007, some 35 million prescription transactions will have been routed electronically in the United States.There were more electronic prescriptions in the first three quarters of 2007 than in 2004, 2005 and 2006 combined and more than 40,000 pharmacies are currently e-prescribing, representing 70 percent of U.S. pharmacies, the study said.