ARLINGTON, VA – Federal incentives to support health IT have helped boost electronic prescribing by 72 percent across the country in 2010.

 

Surescripts released "The National Progress Report on E-Prescribing and Interoperable Healthcare" on May 12, just five days after new research from the Center for Studying Health System Change revealed that many physicians view e-prescribing as too cumbersome and unreliable.

 

The Surescripts report is the fourth in an annual series that tracks the status of e-prescribing adoption and use in the United States. This year's report measures the growth of e-prescribing from 2008 – before the advent of federal incentives – through 2010 and includes new data that provides further detail on physician adoption of e-prescribing and electronic health records.

 

"Electronic prescribing is now well on its way to becoming mainstream practice," said Harry Totonis, president and CEO of Surescripts. "The vision that pharmacies and PBMs had over 10 years ago – replacing phone-, fax- and paper-based prescribing with e-prescribing – is being realized today through improved medication management, increased patient convenience and reduced costs for all.

 

The number of prescribers routing prescriptions electronically grew from 74,000 at the end of 2008 to 234,000 by the end of 2010 – representing 34 percent of all office-based prescribers and 36 percent of office-based physicians. E-prescribing adoption rates are highest among cardiologists (49 percent) and family practitioners (47 percent). In terms of practice size, adoption rates are highest among practices with five to 10 physicians (44 percent) and two to five physicians (42 percent).

 

The HSC study, funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, examined the experiences of 24 physician practices using e-prescribing systems, focusing on the use of features that allow access to external patient-related information that could improve prescribing decisions.

 

Study respondents highlighted two barriers:

1)   Tools to view and import data into patient records are cumbersome in some systems; and

2)   Data is not always seen as useful enough to spend the extra time to access and review, particularly during time-pressed patient visits.

 

“Overall, physicians in practices with greater access to complete and accurate data and with easier-to-use systems were more likely to consistently take advantage of e-prescribing features that could improve decisions at the point of prescribing,” said HSC Senior Researcher Joy M. Grossman, co-author of the study.

 

New government data underscores that physicians’ offices should start e-prescribing to immediately take advantage of federal incentive payments, noted Ingrid Chung, MD, chairwoman of the medical advisory board at eDoctor.

 

“Bonus payments for simply e-prescribing are higher already, and starting on June 30, 2011, incentives will begin to convert to penalties for non-compliance,” said Chung. “The real kicker is that e-prescribing alone also meets 40 percent of Stage 1 meaningful use requirements. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: It really is a no-brainer to start e-prescribing today, especially if one is still undecided about electronic medical records.”