Momentum growing for requiring Medicare e-prescribing

It looks like momentum is growing for Medicare to require physicians to use e-prescribing. The most recent push in that direction came from public-private advisory group American Health Information Community, which is recommending that HHS force the matter. AHIC is also recommending that HHS create incentives for physicians that use EMR, allow prescriptions to be electronically submitted to a patient's preferred pharmacy, and authorize the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality to designate patient safety groups to monitor for any e-prescribing problems. If implemented, AHIC's recommendations would let HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt make exceptions to e-prescribing requirements at his discretion. The AHIC recommendation follows a proposal made last month under which CMS would develop new e-prescribing standards.

To find out more about e-prescribing and Medicare:
- read this Kaiser Daily Health Policy Report piece [1]

Related Articles:
HHS head encourages payers to demand e-prescribing. Report [2]
SPOTLIGHT: Physician IT adoption still poor--so what next? Report [3]
HHS promotes international EMR standards. Report [4]
HHS asks employers to push shared HIT standards. Report [5]