Tag Archives: e-prescribing

e-Prescribing: Ten Required by June 30th

Posted on 14. Apr, 2011 by .

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If you have not begun electronic prescribing, you should do so now. Why? On November 19, 2010, Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) announced that if you do not electronically submit at least ten medical prescriptions from January 1, 2011 to June 30, 2011, you will be subject to a 1% adjustment penalty to your 2012 Medicare reimbursements.

The Penalty

The 2012 and 2013 penalties, also known as Medicare payment adjustments, are a function of meeting e-prescribing thresholds in 2011. Providers need to be thinking about actively using e-prescribing now to avoid 2012 and 2013 reimbursement adjustments.

In addition to electronically submitting a minimum of ten prescriptions, you must submit an additional fifteen medical prescriptions electronically between July 1, 2011 and December 31, 2011 to avoid a 1% reduction in 2012. Also if you do not electronically prescribe a minimum of twenty-five medical prescriptions in 2011, you will be subject to a 1.5% Medicare adjustment penalty levied against your 2013 Medicare reimbursements. Your 2012 and 2013 Medicare reimbursements are affected by how you use e-prescribing in 2011.

Can You Avoid The Penalty?

You can avoid the penalty if you are not a physician or you do not have prescribing privileges. You can also avoid the penalty if you do not have at least 100 Medicare patients or 10% of Medicare patient visits during 2011. Finally, you can avoid payment adjustment penalties if you report a significant hardship exemption.

E-Prescribing Incentive Program

If you do e-prescribe and avoid the penalties, in 2011 CMS will pay you a 1% bonus of your total Medicare Part B reimbursements. The incentive is not limited to 1% of only those encounters where a medication has been submitted electronically but to all 2011 Medicare encounters regardless of whether or not a medication has been prescribed electronically. In 2012 and 2013, there will be a 1% and 0.5% e-prescribing bonus.

For specifics of the bonuses, you should read “How to Get Started” in the e-Prescribing section on CMS’s website found here: http://www.cms.gov/ERxIncentive/

E-Prescribing Requirements

E-Prescribing does not require certification like the Electronic Health Record systems. CMS does outline the following capabilities that software must have in order for the e-prescribing system to be useable:

  • Ability to generate a complete active medication list incorporating electronic data received from applicable pharmacies and pharmacy benefit managers if available.
  • Ability to select medications, print prescriptions, electronically transmits prescriptions and conduct alerts.
  • Ability to provide information related to lower costs and therapeutically appropriate alternatives, if any.

E-Prescribing and EHR Certification

You cannot obtain both the e-prescribing incentive and the EHR Certification incentive at the same time. Therefore to maximize your incentive bonuses, you could obtain the e-prescribing bonus in 2011 and file for the EHR incentive beginning in 2012.

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E-Prescribing Functionality

Posted on 12. Nov, 2010 by .

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Practice Director is currently being certified to submit electronic medication orders through the Surescripts network of pharmacies.  In addition to providing the ability to submit e-prescriptions, clients will have the ability to easily generate renewals, be alerted to drug-allergy and drug-drug conflicts as well as check formularies.

The American Medical Association discusses four key benefits of e-Prescribing to your Practice:

  1. Efficient access to your patient’s medication history information.
  2. Time savings and more productive use of your staff.
  3. Alerts and reminders that help you make better clinical decisions.
  4. Greater convenience for your patients.

In addition to practice benefits there are financial incentive benefits to electronically submitting medications.  Including the Medicare Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program http://www.cms.gov/ERxIncentive/ and the Electronic Health Record Incentive Program http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms/.

For more information about Practice Director’s e-Prescribing functionality, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

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