Government Technology
Government Technology: State & Local Government News Articles

Congress Approves E-Prescribing Initiative in Medicare Reform Bill



Print
Comment
Medical Records

Jul 21, 2008, News Report

In approving a Medicare reform bill that provides incentives for doctors to forego traditional pad-and-paper prescribing in favor of digital systems, Congress took the lead in protecting America's seniors and reached a major milestone in wiring the health care system.

"History shows that where Medicare goes, the rest of the health care system will surely follow," said David B. Snow Jr., Medco chairman and CEO. "By providing incentives for doctors to embrace e-prescribing technologies in prescriptions written for Medicare, Congress has created a catalyst for a long overdue transformation -- adoption of a system proven to reduce errors and improve efficiencies in the most frequently used process in modern health care: prescribing medicines."

Snow added: "e-prescribing efficiencies reduce the cost of processing a prescription, and can help save billions of dollars for Medicare, reducing paperwork for physicians and pharmacists, and safeguarding the health of America's seniors."

The e-prescribing initiative, which first provides financial incentives for doctors who submit prescriptions digitally and then -- following a transition period -- penalizes those who do not, was contained in broad-based Medicare legislation approved by both houses of Congress and forwarded to the President.

Medco played an instrumental role in a broad coalition of pharmacy industry groups, insurers, employers, clinicians, and patient-advocacy organizations in supporting efforts to incent the adoption of secure digital prescribing technologies to improve clinical outcomes for patients and financial outcomes for payors.

Although surveys reveal that 90 percent of physicians support e-prescribing, fewer than 1 in 10 currently use the life-saving technology.

A recent e-prescribing pilot revealed that:

  • Nearly 65 percent of physicians reported changing a prescription due to safety alerts transmitted through the system.
  • 75 percent of physicians said the technology improved safety for their patients.
  • Approximately 70 percent were very satisfied with the ease of identifying drug-to-allergy and drug-to-drug interactions.

It is estimated that over the next 10 years, up to 80 percent of prescriptions will be transmitted electronically.

"Medicare has traditionally served as a critical tipping point for the broad adoption of new medical practices," said Snow. "As doctors begin using these technologies for their Medicare patients, they will, predictably, use those technologies across their entire patient populations."


If You Liked This Article, You May Also Like...

Related Products and Services


Latest Government Technology News


Industry Solutions for Government

Read real world deployments of technology in government from our sponsors.

View All Industry Solutions

Marketplace


This section
brought to you by:
Ca - Transforming IT Management

Identity and Access Management Survey
Take the survey to:
  • Win 1 of 10 $25 Amazon Gift Cards!
  • Download the Center for Digital Government's: I Am Who I Say I Am whitepaper
Take the Survey Now!

SF Health Plan

  Yes! I would like more information about CA's solutions for Government.

Security Management

The Evolution of Identity and Access Management IAM has become a key tool in the organization’s security and risk management efforts. Many Govt. organizations however, are not realizing the potential of a fully evolved IAM solution. This paper helps them achieve that goal.

How can a comprehensive IAM solution help me reduce security risk and achieve easier compliance? Identity and Access Management (IAM) solutions help you manage users and their access to your IT resources while acheving more effective compliance.

IT Governance

IT Governance: Making the Difference in Cities, Counties and States Project and portfolio management helps government respond to old and new challenges. Featuring case studies from California Department of Agriculture, New York City, and Oakland County, Michigan.

CA Information Governance Solution Brief The CA Information Governance solution helps you solve an array of challenges with unique offerings including federated records management, email management, retention management and business process automation.

Enterprise Management

IT Network Management: State and Local Governments Face New Challenges Network and voice management tools help agancies get optimum performance from today's increasingly complex networks.

Success Stories: San Francisco Health Plan San Francisco Health Plan helps more people access affordable healthcare by simplifying IT management

Success Stories: Social Services Agency, County of Santa Clara County of Santa Clara improves the quality of social services with simplified IT management

CA Network & Voice Management Solution Brief Integrated, fault and performance management for end-to-end service assurance of multi-vendor, multi-technology converged networks.

Risk Compliance and Best Practices

Key Trends in the IAM Market and how CA's R12 Suite Addresses these Trends Identity and Access Management (IAM) has been a major force in the enterprise IT marketplace for years now.This paper will address the question: What's driving interest in IAM solutions?

Network and VoiceManagement for Evolving Business IT management specialist CA provides a foundation for delivering the value of unified network and voice management

A Vision for Dynamic Business Service Management By applying new levels of consolidation, automation and insight, dynamic Business Svc Mgt delivers improved service levels and cost controls

Deploying the CMDB for Change & Configuration Management The Configuration Management Database (CMDB) plays a critical role within the ITIL framework.

The Changing Face of Network Management Automated NCCM tools reduce the downtime and degradation caused by configuration changes.