Medicare pushes for increase in adoption of e-prescribing
Patient Safety Monitor Alert
October 29, 2008
Although Medicare has given physicians a pay incentive to use e-prescribing starting in January 2009, all signs point to a lack of interest, reports American Medical News. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) hosted 1,400 people for its National E-prescribing Conference two weeks ago, hoping to reach out to physicians. However, attendees included small numbers of physicians not utilizing the technology already.
CMS is offering a 2% bonus to doctors who e-prescribe medications for their patients. That incentive drops to 1% in 2011, and 0.5% in 2013. Additionally, in 2012, any physicians not complying with CMS' mandate to use e-prescribing will be penalized 1% of their reimbursement, and that number increases to 1.5% in 2013 and to 2% after 2014. Only 6% of physicians currently use the technology, the article says.
To read the article, click here.
