E-Prescribing and EHR are Here — Where Now Is Definitely The Time To Begin The Educational And Planning Process

In the last issue of The Healthcare News we discussed E-Prescribing and its advantages to patients, doctors, and insurance companies.

E-Prescribing, whether implemented as a stand alone system or as a component of an electronic medical record (EMR) system, offers immediate and significant benefits to patients and insurers. The benefits to doctors, however, are less immediate and less measurable. As with implementing EMR or EHR systems, it’s the doctors who incur the costs of buying and installing the system, the costs of training and ongoing support costs.

So why do it? In addition to patient health concerns, doctors who have implemented E-Prescribing claim it saves them and their office personnel time which increases office efficiency. It is estimated that, in primary care practices, two-thirds of patient visits include a prescription and about 15{06cf2b9696b159f874511d23dbc893eb1ac83014175ed30550cfff22781411e5} of incoming phone calls relate to prescriptions. This requires a lot of chart pulling and paper flow.

More strategic albeit less-measurable benefits include reduction in prescription errors and complications with diet or other medications that can reduce malpractice litigation and insurance costs. Members of the new generation of doctors are very technology literate and oriented. A medical practice’s IT capability will soon become a recruiting and retention issue. E-Prescribing also results in better patient service. Prescription procurement and refilling is an inconvenience to patients. Minimizing the hassles promotes patient satisfaction.

Finally, E-Prescribing is only one component of a federal government mandate for full electronic health record systems. The objectives are to improve quality of care and to reduce healthcare costs. Health insurance carriers are promoting this with equal enthusiasm. CMS is in the process of rolling out a pay-for-performance program that will reward medical practices for implementing these programs and the resulting quality performance. Since the CMS budget will likely remain revenue neutral, participating practices will be paid more while nonparticipating practices will see payment cuts. It is very likely that private insurers will follow suit.

CMS has already launched a program to help small-to medium size practices with electronic health records implementation. The Doctor’s Office Quality Information Technology Project (DOQ-IT) has already been launched in some states, including Massachusetts. It provides free consultation and educational services to help doctors migrate from paper-based health records to electronic health systems. It will provide free information about the costs, risks and benefits of EHRs. It will conduct needs assessments and technical assistance to integrate and optimize EHR use.

It will require participating practices to submit clinical data to a data warehouse so DOQ-IT can help doctors compare and measure their clinical performance. This will pave the way for pay-for-performance programs. For more information on the Massachusetts DOQ-IT program, visit the web site at www.masspro.org/DOQIT.

Some insurance companies and states also offer grants to assist medical practices. You should contact your state medical society for available information. Due to annual budget constraints, these funds are usually available on a first come, first serve basis.

E-Prescribing and EHR systems are the here and now of medical practices. It is the largest transformation that any medical practice has yet had to undertake. Now is the time to begin the educational and planning process. It is no longer an option for future consideration.

James B. Calnan, CPA, is the partner-in-charge of the Health Care Services Division of Meyers Brothers Kalicka, P.C., Certified Public Accountants and Business Consultants, in Holyoke; (413) 536-8510.