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Medicare to adopt carrot-and-stick approach to encourage e-prescribing

EHR Connection, August 11, 2008

Medicare will adopt a system that rewards providers who prescribe electronically and penalizes those who don’t, HHS announced in a July 21 press release.
 
Medicare will provide incentive payments to eligible providers who are successful electronic prescribers beginning in 2009, HHS said in its announcement. The incentive payments will be 2% during 2009 and 2010, 1% in 2011 and 2012, and 0.5% in 2013.
 
Eligible providers who don’t e-prescribe successfully by 2012 will receive reduced payments, HHS said in its press release. Exemption due to significant hardship will occur on a case-by-case basis.
 
Medicare expects savings of up to $256 million due to fewer adverse drug events during the five-year program, according to the press release. An estimated 530,000 adverse drug events annually are attributable to negative interactions with other drugs or lack of information about a patient’s medication history.
 

Click here to read the HHS press release.

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