DEERFIELD, IL – Walgreens officials say the national pharmacy chain's electronic prescriptions reached the 4 million mark in October - a 185-percent increase over October, 2008.

According to officials, the milestone demonstrates the impact of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, which provides financial incentives for practitioners who use electronic prescribing in 2009.

Walgreens will fill more than 45 million electronic prescriptions in 2009, compared with 15 million filled in 2008, officials said. The company expects growth to continue with help from financial incentives in the federal stimulus package, which encourages hospitals, doctors and others to adopt electronic health records, a core component of which is e-prescribing.

"With the federal stimulus package providing $19 billion in incentives to adopt electronic health records, doctors will gain easier access to software that makes electronic prescribing possible," said Don Huonker, Walgreens' senior vice president of healthcare innovation.

Walgreens officials are pushing for e-prescribing to be extended to all prescriptions, including controlled substances. Currently, the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency does not allow doctors to electronically prescribe controlled substances, which account for approximately 15 percent of all medications prescribed.

"Continued growth in e-prescribing will help meet the goals of healthcare reform," said Huonker. "In addition to lowering costs for doctors and pharmacies, electronic prescribing makes it more likely that patients will get their prescriptions filled, benefit from their drug therapy and avoid more expensive medical procedures. E-prescribing also reduces the medication errors and adverse drug events that cost the healthcare system billions of dollars per year. And by eliminating the need to call a doctor's office to verify a prescription, e-prescribing provides pharmacists more time to focus on drug interactions, the right dosing and patient consultation."