FALLS CHURCH, Va. –  Although incentive and subsidy programs for e-prescribing are becoming more numerous, the cost of e-prescribing systems and physicians' lack of knowledge about which system to invest in continues to hinder adoption, recent studies show.

Physicians have two options when it comes to choosing an e-prescribing system. They can use an electronic health records system that is configured with
e-prescribing modules or a standalone system.

CMS announced in November that computer-generated faxes to pharmacies not equipped to receive true electronically transmitted prescription would qualify as e-prescriptions until 2012.

The biggest difference between a computer-generated fax and true e-prescribing, says Gail Fournier, a partner at CSC's global healthcare sector, is that a fax travels and looks like a document. When it is received at the pharmacy, in most cases the pharmacist will have to enter it into another system.

An electronic prescription can be decoded by the receiving pharmacy without a person ever having to handle it.

Fournier works closely with MA-SHARE, a regional collaborative initiative operated by the Massachusetts Health Data Consortium. She is the project manager of MA-SHARE's e-Prescribing Gateway project that seeks to improve the speed of adoption, accuracy and value of e-prescribing applications. Fournier says the project has made it possible for 2,000 physicians to use e-prescribing.

"We are living proof that it is possible to do this (e-prescribing) safely and at scale," Fournier says.