The stimulus bill, and its $19 billion investment in health information technology, will spur a fourfold increase in e-prescribing over current levels, according to the analysis by Minneapolis-based Visante. The firm estimates that e-prescribing will save public and private payers $78.2 billion in the first 10 years once the 75 percent adoption rate is achieved, thanks to a reduction of medication errors and hospitalizations.

The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, which offers physicians a 2 percent bonus on their Medicare claims for e-prescribing and a 1 percent penalty by 2012 for non-compliance, was expected to yield only a 40 percent adoption rate by 2014, according to Visante.

via Stimulus legislation expected to boost e-prescribing adoption to 75% – – Modern Medicine.

The report, released by Alexandria, Va.-based Surescripts, documents the status of e-prescribing adoption and use in the United States from 2006 through 2008.

According to the report, more than 100,000 prescribers are now routing prescriptions electronically, and the use of three critical components of e-prescribing – electronic prescription benefit, history and routing – jumped 61 percent in the first quarter of 2009. This jump resulted in more than 134 million e-prescribing messages being exchanged among prescribers, payers and pharmacies.

The report credits three factors for influencing e-prescribing growth in 2008:

the attention e-prescribing received at the federal and state policy level;

national programs that drove e-prescribing and offered practical tools to assist the industry in moving;

and the adoption of e-prescribing by key groups – namely, payers  (including PBMs and Medicaid plans), prescribers and pharmacies.

“In the past two years, the U.S. has gone from 19,000 to 103,000 prescribers routing prescriptions electronically – punctuated by 39 percent sequential growth in prescriber adoption in the first quarter of this year,” said Harry Totonis, president and CEO of Surescripts. “The past two years have also witnessed a sevenfold increase in the use of e-prescribing. And while this growth shows clear evidence that the steps taken by policymakers, prescribers, payers, pharmacies and others are having a positive impact, swift and specific action is required for the U.S. to achieve mainstream adoption and use of e-prescribing.”

via Industry News | Healthcare IT News.