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Area Physicians Eligible for Increase in Medicare Reimbursement by Participating in E-Prescribing Program

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 6, 2009
Contacts: Earl Wells/Laura Taczak
e3communications
716-854-8182

Goal is to reduce adverse drug events among patients

BUFFALO, NEW YORK – Physicians throughout Western New York may be eligible to receive an extra two percent reimbursement from the federal Medicare program if they elect to write prescriptions electronically rather than on paper. The practice, known as e-prescribing, is designed to reduce medication errors caused by illegibility and adverse drug interactions. National studies and statistics show that prescription errors can lead to adverse drug events for patients in the health care system resulting in avoidable hospitalizations and in some circumstances deaths.

“e-prescribing will help deliver safer, more efficient care to patients," said Dr. Raghu Ram, chairman of the Physician Advisory Committee of HEALTHeLINK™ and senior medical director of BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York. “e-prescribing provides physicians the opportunity to electronically send an accurate, error-free, and understandable prescription data directly to a pharmacy from the point of care. Over time, the e-prescribing system would then build and maintain a permanent record of both the patient’s information and medication history. Doctors will benefit from this efficiency by reducing the number of call-backs from pharmacies regarding dosage, renewal requests, and other more general questions.”

The federal government is working to provide physicians with incentives to leverage technology to increase patient safety. Authorized physicians can access patient medication history in real time and be informed of drug-to-drug interactions and opportunities for generic drug substitutions. Patient compliance is enhanced because pharmacies directly receive the prescriptions from physicians. Patient satisfaction and peace of mind is enhanced as safety and accuracy of the process increases.

Utilizing technology to exchange information related to prescribing medications is a critical component to the implementation of a region wide health information exchange network under the auspices of HEALTHeLINK™. HEALTHeLINK™ will interface and facilitate communication between electronic medical record systems that provide e-prescribing capabilities among health care entities throughout the eight-county region. The organization also provides area physicians without an electronic medical records system to do e-prescribing. This same tool provides the ability to obtain patient lab results and radiology reports electronically at virtually no cost to them.

“We are very excited about the program and confident that e-prescribing will increase patient safety, improve intelligence on patient drug regiment and provide real time alerts and reminders to support clinical decision-making,” said Daniel Porreca, executive director of HEALTHeLINK™. “The e-prescribing program is a great way for area physicians to experience the benefits of a shared information exchange network and take advantage of the incentives available to them in a cost effective manner.”

Medicare reimbursement to physicians using e-prescribing will increase by 2 percent in 2009 and 2010, by 1 percent in 2011 and 2012 and by 0.5% in 2013. Physicians who do not adopt e-prescribing will have their reimbursement reduced by 1 percent in 2010 and by up to 2 percent in 2013 and thereafter.

About HEATHeLINK™

HEALTHeLINK™, the Western New York Clinical Information Exchange (WNYCIE), is a collaborative effort among various organizations to share clinical information in efficient and meaningful ways to improve the delivery of care, enhance clinical outcomes, and help control healthcare costs throughout the region. The not-for-profit organization and was established through funding from The Catholic Health System, Erie County Medical Center Corporation, HealthNow New York (BlueCross BlueShield of Western New York), Independent Health Association, Kaleida Health, Roswell Park Cancer Institute, Univera Healthcare and a $3.5 million HEAL 1 grant from New York State. HEALTHeLINK™ stakeholders also include a broad representation of healthcare professionals and organizations throughout the eight-county Western New York region such as the Buffalo Academy of Medicine (BAM), Erie County Department of Health (ECDOH), State University of New York at Buffalo and the WNY R-AHEC (Rural Area Health Education Center).