Iowa partnership will offer statewide e-prescribing
By Brian Robinson
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Electronic prescribing, often described as the lowest hanging fruit in health IT, could be set to make a big leap forward as organizations in states such as Iowa look to provide free e-prescribing services for physicians and federal legislation starts to drive nationwide adoption of the technology.
The Iowa program, called ePrescribe Iowa, is a Web-based effort launched by Iowa Health System, a community-based integrated health care system, and Allscripts, a major provider of e-prescribing software. It will run on Iowa Health System’s HealthNet connect, a 3,200 mile-long fiberoptic network.
It’s a standalone solution that the partners are touting as a first step in driving the adoption of electronic health records throughout the state. It shares that goal with the federal stimulus funds that will be provided to physicians under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health (HITECH) Act.
Less than 3 percent of all prescriptions written in Iowa in 2008 used e-prescribing, according to ePrescribe Iowa, citing figures produced by Surescripts, the largest U.S. e-prescribing network.
“By adding significant new capabilities to HealthNet connect, this offering will help accelerate Iowa Health System’s efforts to connect urban and rural health facilities and enable better care,” said Bill Leaver, Iowa Health System’s president and chief executive officer.
Nationwide, things are somewhat better. Even so, less than a quarter of prescription writers currently use e-prescribing, according to Surescripts, though it expects that to improve rapidly to 50 percent or more by 2011.
The key to that is getting small and medium-sized practices, which write the majority of prescriptions, to use the technology, said Rick Ratliff, executive vice president, customers and markets, at Surescripts. Most large medical practices are already on-board with e-prescribing, with the majority of those using electronic medical record systems to write prescriptions.
The answer lies with incentives offered through Medicare and HITECH, as well as support that will be provided through the regional high tech extension centers that will result from the Health IT Technology Extension Program, a grant program authorized under the HITECH legislation.
“For small practices in particular, the key is to find a solution that meets their requirements and then provide them with the ability to get it into the practice,” said Ratliff. “But those smaller practices don’t have any IT staff, so they need the support” that the extension centers will offer.
The ePrescribe Iowa system gets around that by offering its solution over the Web. All users need is a PC and Web browser and Allscripts, which developed the software-as-a-service solution, claims physicians can start e-prescribing with just 30 minutes of training.
As the health IT incentives start to work and meaningful use measures are defined, Surescripts expects a rapid growth in e-prescribing. The 2009 figure will be double the 74,000 users 2008, and Ratliffe said some 30 percent of U.S. prescribers could be writing their scripts electronically by the end of 2010, with 50 percent or more e-prescribing by 2011.
