Supporters Recommend E-Prescribing Requirement In Medicare

Main Category: Medicare / Medicaid / SCHIP
Also Included In: IT / Internet / E-mail;  Pharmacy / Pharmacist
Article Date: 18 Sep 2007 - 1:00 PST

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Use of electronic prescribing in Medicare could prevent as many as 1.9 million medication errors and save the program as much as $29 billon over the next 10 years, Mark Merritt, CEO of Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, said on Wednesday, CQ HealthBeat reports. According to supporters, e-prescribing could help prevent medication errors related to illegible prescriptions, overuse and adverse reactions. Merritt said that Congress this fall would consider legislation to require physicians who participate in Medicare to use e-prescribing.

A study published on Monday in the Archives of Internal Medicine found that deaths from adverse medication reactions have almost tripled since 1998, and the results could help "fuel efforts on Capitol Hill" to include such a requirement in legislation to prevent a 10% reduction in Medicare physician reimbursements scheduled for next year, according to CQ HealthBeat.

William Vaughan, an analyst for Consumers Union, said that the savings from such a requirement could finance the cost of the legislation. He added, "If doctors are going to get billions of dollars of updates, some of that should be conditioned on moving to e-prescribing by a [certain] date, and, if you don't do that, you don't get as much of an update."

However, acting CMS Administrator Kerry Weems, who supports e-prescribing, said, "I'm not so sure a requirement could help" reduce adverse medication reactions, adding, "I'm not yet to the point where we're going to use the payment system to coerce it."

American Medical Association Chair Edward Langston said, "Physicians are eager to adopt new technologies that have the potential to increase patient safety and quality of care, but hitting doctors with an unfunded e-prescribing mandate at the same time the government plans to cut Medicare physician payments 10% next year is untenable" (Reichard, CQ HealthBeat, 9/12).

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