E-prescribing definition

E-prescribing has evolved over the years, and with advancements in technology, this is likely to offer more development in the realm of pharmacy. The majority of pharmacies and providers in the United States have included e-prescribing into their processes. This study focuses on the application system's benefits and drawbacks, the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs' guidelines, and the controversy surrounding the e-prescribing penalty in 2013.

The adoption of e-prescribing has brought with it a number of advantages. Some of its benefits are listed below. E-prescribing has contributed to enhanced patient safety by dealing with issues such as incorrect selection of drugs, the omission of information or duplication of therapy.

It is of financial benefit to both the patient and the organization in that it has helped in cost reduction (Pros and cons of electronic prescriptions, 2017).

There has been an enhancement in the workflow and access to prescription records with the implementation of e-prescribing in the healthcare facilities.

Cons

The design features of the e-prescribing software such as poor screen designs, automatic filling functions, and up-down menus may contribute to a significant increase in the recorded errors within a healthcare facility.

Another disadvantage of e-prescribing is the costs that are attached to its use such as maintenance fees, start-up and transaction fees.

Issues on the privacy of the patient’s records and information have also been raised with individuals arguing that in the event of hacking of the systems, this may end up being impaired (Pros and cons of electronic prescriptions, 2017).

E-prescription standards as described by the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs

The NCPDP requires that all the health facilities across the U.S. send prescriptions to the pharmacies electronically. This is aimed at mitigating the errors related to the prescription of drugs and therapy as well as fighting the abuse of painkiller drugs across the country. Under the new rules by the NCPDP, paper prescription as it has been the case traditionally in most of the health facilities across the country will not be acceptable, and those hospitals found not abiding by the rule will have to be slapped with penalties. The release of the new specialized standard as well as the enhancement to its script standard primarily focused on meaningful usage of the health records and enabling the eligible providers to transmit the necessary prescriptions electronically to various pharmacies across the country. The specialized standard also addresses the following issues:

The electronic transmission of census information of a particular patient from a healthcare facility to a pharmacy

Medication Therapy Management transactions between providers, patients, and a healthcare organization

The installation of the privacy of a patient’s records during the entire transaction process

Projected time saving and costs of the implementation of the e-prescribing system

In the U.S. an estimated 1.5 million adverse drug events occur annually, and this accounts to $2.7 million in terms of health care spending. Health care organizations are now faced with the costs of the implementation of the e-prescription systems as a part of their daily processes. According to the US Department of Health and Human Services, the estimated costs for the implementation of the e-prescribing systems in those facilities that are yet to is $1.2 billion. In as much as it may appear costly, the technological process has been praised for the time-saving benefits that it comes along with. Paper work is no longer needed in the prescription of a patient’s information. All that the medical practitioners need to do is to electronically fill in the prescription and transmit them to a pharmacy. This plays a significant role in time-saving. The report by the department, further states that, in 2016, out of the 12674 prescriptions that were written by health facilities in New York using the software, it was found that the cost was $4.12 lower compared to the prescriptions that were not done using the software. Additionally, with the improved workflow as a result of the integration of the e-prescription application in the healthcare organization, time consumption in terms of operations has been mitigated, and this has been instrumental in the enhancement of their financial performance and productivity.

Controversy surrounding the 2013 e-prescribing penalty

The penalty was introduced in 2013 by the federal government with the aim of popularising and enforcing e-prescribing and targeted those medical care givers that failed to send their prescriptions electronically (Terry, 2017). Those found guilty of the offense lost 1.5-2% of their Medicare reimbursement annually while some of them were even threatened with the withdrawal of their practicing licensure. However, this penalty has since been met with a lot of criticism across the U.S. some individuals argue that this is one of the channels that the federal government has taken advantage of to generate revenues while others argue that it is against the law.

Conclusion

The implementation of the e-prescribing system is expected to bring a lot of changes in the healthcare sector, especially in terms of improved efficiency of operations and time-saving. However, cons such as increased implementation and maintenance costs and defaults in the system may end up serving as set-backs to the entire process.

References

Pros and cons of electronic prescriptions. (2017). Cbsnews.com. Retrieved 5 September 2017, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/pros-and-cons-of-electronic-prescriptions-for-patients-and-doctors/

Terry, K. (2017). Penalties for Physicians: They Keep Piling on. Medscape. Retrieved 5 September 2017, from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/773899_2