E-prescribing savings will offset the $19 billion feds will spend for health ITConsulting firm predicts 75 percent adoption of e-prescribing by 2014
The stimulus law’s incentives for providers to adopt health information technology will double the rate of e-prescribing and result in a $22 billion reduction in drug and medical costs in the next decade, according to a study commissioned by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association.
If the study’s authors at consulting firm Visante are correct, the e-prescribing savings alone will more than pay for the $19 billion in adoption incentives and other health IT promotion activities required under the stimulus law.
By 2014, more than three-quarters of prescribers will be using e-prescribing, the researchers said. That is double the number anticipated after passage of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008, which includes incentives to encourage Medicare providers to adopt e-prescribing.
Today, fewer than 15 percent of prescribers use e-prescribing, according to Visante’s report.
The report said e-prescribing saves money by:
- Informing doctors at the point of prescribing about the cost and clinical characteristics of medication options and letting doctors choose the best and most affordable drugs, including more generic drugs.
- Giving doctors the patient’s medication history so that harmful drug interactions and duplicate prescriptions can be avoided.
- Notifying doctors of pharmacy options, including mail-order and retail drug stores, to help them hold down patients’ out-of-pocket costs.
- Transmitting the prescription to the pharmacy electronically, thereby reducing waiting times and errors associated with illegible handwriting.
Besides cutting the federal government’s costs by $22 billion, the report states that health care payers will save a total of $56.2 billion under the stimulus law, titled the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The increase in health IT adoption will also prevent 3.5 million adverse drug reactions and 585,000 hospitalizations stemming from those reactions, the report states.
Although the law’s incentives will not totally offset providers’ outlays for acquiring electronic health records, the report predicts that “pay-for-performance measures implemented by the private sector will likely provide further financial inducement for providers to adopt the technology.”
The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association, the study’s sponsor, represents pharmacy benefits managers. It has been a proponent of e-prescribing for several years. |
发表于 2009-3-19 08:50:12