CMS offers e-prescribing guide

This week, CMS issued its own guide to e-prescribing, including one section addressed to office-based clinicians new to e-prescribing and the other helping office-based clinicians who already understand the technology and hope to implement it soon. The publication, "A Clinician's Guide to Electronic Prescribing," was released at CMS's National E-Prescribing Conference.

CMS has gradually been throwing its weight behind e-prescribing over the past couple of years. For one thing, in mid-2007 it eliminated a regulatory loophole allowing providers and pharmacies to fax prescriptions rather than send them electronically and approved Part D e-prescribing standards.

More recently, the agency rolled out a new set of e-prescribing incentives and penalties, offering Medicare bonuses to physicians who adopt the technology through 2013 and steadily larger Medicare reimbursement cuts to those who don't through 2014.

To learn more about the guide:
- read this Heathcare IT News article
- read the CMS report (.pdf)

Related Articles:
CMS drops e-prescribing loophole
CMS approves Part D e-prescribing standards
Feds outline Medicare incentive for e-prescribing