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E-Prescription Firm Receives a Political Boost
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According to the Institute of Medicine, 7,000 patients die and an additional 1.5 million are injured each year by medication errors, including those resulting from bad handwriting and problematic communication among doctors and pharmacies. RxHub, a similar network established by the benefits companies, provides insurance information and medication history.
At its best, electronic prescribing software linked into the SureScripts and RxHub networks allows doctors to look up which medications patients are taking and receive alerts if medications conflict. Doctors can also choose the cheapest drug under a patient's insurance and send that information to the pharmacy.
But it doesn't always work that way.
"There's a lag behind the vision of what these things might be and where they stand right now," said Joy Grossman, a senior health researcher at the Center for Studying Health System Change.
Most doctors don't have full access to a patient's list of medications, and lists of drugs that might conflict aren't complete, she said. Doctors don't want to think about the costs of drugs, she added.
"They view that as the pharmacist's job," Grossman said. "They want to do what they think is clinically appropriate."
There are several other barriers.
One is cost. Electronic prescription software can cost a doctor up to $25,000. Until recently, some states banned electronic prescriptions. Some patients may worry about privacy, but health officials said such concerns are no greater than with paper prescriptions.
The Drug Enforcement Administration requires paper prescriptions for controlled substances, such as those used to treat mental illness. "Requiring that the original documents be maintained in paper form serves to support both the accuracy and integrity of each record," Joseph T. Rannazzisi, a senior DEA official, told Congress last week.
SureScripts has taken steps to try to expand. In May, it agreed to pay $500,000 to buy its chief competitor, increasing the size of its network. The pharmacy industry, looking to cut costs, has lobbied lawmakers to put incentives into legislation to accelerate e-prescribing.
"It becomes a first step in essentially the adoption of a fully robust electronic health record system," said Karen M. Bell, the director of the office of health information technology adoption in HHS.
Yet SureScripts might have some work to do if it's going to see widespread e-prescribing. At least one powerful interest group has aligned against any mandate.
"Medicare payments already fall well below medical practice costs," American Medical Association board chairman Edward Langston said in a written statement. "In order to fund investments like health IT and other practice improvements, Medicare must first cover the costs of patient care.
