Medicare
Final 2009 physician payment rule implements new electronic prescribing incentive program
The Centers for
Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently announced a new
initiative for physicians and other eligible health care professionals
to improve efficiency and safety when ordering medications for patients
with Medicare. The initiative, which encourages providers to discontinue
use of prescription notepads, is included in the Medicare Physician
Fee Schedule (MPFS) final rule for the 2009 calendar year.
Physicians and other eligible health care professionals
who use qualified e-prescribing systems to transmit prescriptions to
pharmacies may earn an incentive payment of 2% of their total Medicare-allowed
charges during 2009.
To participate in the e-prescribing
incentive program, you need to have a qualified e-prescribing system
that must be able to:
- Communicate with the patient's pharmacy
- Help identify appropriate medications and provide information on lower-cost alternatives
- Provide information on formulary medications
- Generate alerts about possible adverse events, such as improper dosing, medication-to-medication interactions or allergy concerns
Electronic prescribing can eliminate medication errors
that result from misread handwritten prescriptions. Medicare beneficiaries
may also have reduced out-of-pocket costs as e-prescribing facilitates
better communication between prescribers and pharmacies on lower-cost
generic alternatives.
The Institute of Medicine reports that more than 1.5 million Americans are affected every year by medication errors. E-prescribing informs you immediately of a patient's medication history and the risk of dangerous interactions.
For more detailed information on this and other CMS topics, please visit the CMS Web site.
