Part D standards aim to encourage e-prescribing

"Doctors who want to go paperless when ordering drugs for their Medicare patients now have a set of federal standards on how to do it. Those who are prescribing electronically already have a year in which to become compliant with the rules.

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services on April 2 released final e-prescribing regulations for Medicare Part D. Under the rules, physicians and pharmacies will not be required to use electronic prescriptions but must follow the new standards if they do.

The regulations, set to take effect in April 2009, have four categories: formulary and benefits; medication history; fill status notification; and provider identifiers. The standards, required by Medicare law, will govern how physicians, pharmacies and drug plans will communicate electronically to handle drug orders.

The new rules join a set of "foundation standards" that went into effect with Part D in 2006. The earlier standards guide such activities as determining drug benefit eligibility, issuing new prescriptions, and modifying or cancelling drug orders.

Now that the final regulations are in place, more physicians can embrace a technology that can help prevent some of the hundreds of thousands of adverse drug events that occur each year, said Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt. It can save money for the health care system, he added.

"Establishing standards for e-prescribing under Medicare's prescription drug program will help pave the way for widespread adoption of e-prescribing throughout the medical community," Leavitt said.

But the American Medical Association and others noted that CMS' work is not complete. Physicians still need e-prescribing guidance on prior authorization, structured and codified patient instructions, and clinical drug terminology. CMS field-tested standards in those three areas but found that they were not yet ready to be finalized for Medicare.

The final rules are "a significant step toward advancing greater use of e-prescribing," said AMA Board of Trustees Chair Edward L. Langston, MD. However, he added, "To move forward with the widespread adoption of e-prescribing, the health care community needs a comprehensive set of e-prescribing standards."

The AMA also asked for more time before the standards took effect. The April 2009 deadline does not give software vendors and doctors enough time to get systems in line with the requirements, the AMA argued. But CMS did not change the effective date.

The Pharmaceutical Care Management Assn., which represents the pharmacy benefit managers that administer Medicare Part D, says no more time is needed. Since last year, PCMA has been pushing strongly for a congressional mandate on physicians to use e-prescribing in Medicare. The standards were the final piece needed for this to happen, said Mark Merritt, the organization's president and CEO. "E-prescribing is ready to go."

For the AMA, the lack of comprehensive final standards is just one barrier to physician adoption of the technology. The Association opposes an electronic prescribing mandate because of the financial burden these systems impose on physicians. Even in a voluntary system, doctors should get adequate federal financial incentives to adopt the technology, the AMA says."

Quoted from amednews.com

Story By David Glendinning, AMNews staff. April 28, 2008. For full story Click Here

2008 Physician Quality Reporting Initiative

CMS has established the Physician Quality Reporting Initiative (PQRI). The 2008 PQRI reporting period is January 1-December 31, 2008. Eligible professionals who want to report for 2008 PQRI and are not already reporting quality-data codes on claims with 2008 dates of service should begin reporting as soon as possible.



Click Here for More Details