Center Releases New White Paper On Electronic Prescribing: Written And Endorsed By Industry-Wide Coalition, USA

Main Category: IT / Internet / E-mail
Also Included In: Pharmacy / Pharmacist;  Primary Care / General Practice;  Public Health
Article Date: 12 Jun 2008 - 3:00 PDT

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The Center for Health Transformation released a new white paper on electronic prescribing that presents a comprehensive look at the technology, its benefits in saving lives and saving money, and how to overcome the barriers to its widespread adoption. The Center brought together a broad coalition of member organizations to author this work, from physicians and hospitals, to health insurers, pharmacy benefit managers and technology leaders.

The paper provides policymakers and industry leaders a comprehensive look at the benefits of e-prescribing, supporting the Institute of Medicine's recommendation for all prescriptions to be written electronically by 2010. The paper includes experiences, perspectives and analyses that conclude that e-prescribing is an intelligent, efficient technology that improves patient safety and saves money by eliminating the inefficiencies of a paper-based system.

"Health information technology and the use of electronic prescribing is the one issue that everyone in healthcare can agree upon," said Speaker Newt Gingrich. "The breadth of the organizations that contributed to and actively support this report clearly demonstrates the unanimity."

The paper is timely as Congressional lawmakers debate The Medicare Electronic Medication and Safety Protection (E-MEDS) Act, a key part of the current discussions regarding physician payment in Medicare. Introduced by Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and supported by a bipartisan group of policymakers, the E-MEDS bill creates an incentive program to encourage Medicare physicians to adopt e-prescribing.

"Healthcare in America needs to move out of the dark ages and into the 21st century," said Senator Kerry. "With technology like e-prescribing we will undoubtedly save lives, improve quality and lower costs. This paper makes an important contribution to the debate."

The paper was written collaboratively by Center members, including: Allscripts; American Hospital Association; American Medical Group Association; Availity; Blue Cross Blue Shield Association; Covisint; Chrysler LLC; Healthvision; InterComponentWare (ICW); MedImpact Healthcare Systems, Inc.; Microsoft; MinuteClinic; Misys; Pharmaceutical Care Management Association; RxHub, LLC; SureScripts; UnitedHealthcare; WellPoint, Inc.; and Zix Corporation.

The paper can be downloaded at The Center's homepage at http://www.healthtransformation.net.

The eHealth Initiative, in partnership with the Center for Improving Medication Management, also released a report today on electronic prescribing. That report can be found at http://www.ehealthinitiative.org.

About the Center for the Health Transformation

The Center for Health Transformation is a high-impact collaboration of private and public sector leaders committed to creating a 21st Century Intelligent Health System that saves lives and saves money for all Americans.

Center for the Health Transformation