An estimated 17 percent of office-based prescribers now send prescriptions electronically to pharmacies, according to the report by Surescripts, which operates the largest U.S. electronic prescribing network.
That compares with 12 percent at the end of 2008 and 6 percent at the end of 2007, Surescripts said.
"In the past two years, the United States has gone from 19,000 to 103,000 prescribers routing prescriptions electronically," Harry Totonis, president and chief executive of Surescripts, said in a statement.
Totonis said the growth this year shows "clear evidence that the steps taken by policymakers, prescribers, payers, pharmacies and others are having a positive impact."
Starting in 2012, providers who do not use e-prescribing may suffer penalties under the new rules for Medicare.
A report released last month by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) projected that as many as 75 percent of doctors will move to e-prescribing within 5 years.
PCMA projects that e-prescribing will save the U.S. government $22 billion over the next decade, more than covering the $19 billion in spending in the stimulus bill.
By the end of 2008, approximately 76 percent of community pharmacies and six of the largest mail-order pharmacies were able to handle electronic prescriptions.
Surescripts said the number of prescriptions routed electronically more than doubled to 68 million last year but still accounted for only a small fraction of the 4.4 billion prescriptions written annually in the U.S.
Source : http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/701786
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