Dive Brief:
- Aiming to reduce the amount of illegally obtained oxycontin, hydrocodone and valium available on the streets, New York health officials are looking to the mandatory use of electronic prescribing for controlled substances to help solve the problem, according to a report in Fortune Magazine.
- The new law, which takes effect March 27, makes it mandatory for all New York physicians prescribing controlled substances for their patients to file those prescriptions with pharmacies electronically, via services like CVS' Surescripts, which currently manages approximately 93% of all eScrips filled in the US. today. No paper subscriptions (not even faxed copies) will be allowed in the state after the 27th.
- CVS and Surescripts executives quoted in the story stated that the use of Electronic Prescriptions for Controlled Substances (EPCS) will not only help reduce prescription fraud, it will also help reduce adverse drug reactions by 60% because of the systems' ability to flag contraindicated prescriptions filed by different physicians for the same patient.
Dive Insight:
While this seems to be the first law to mandate EPCS, the idea that ECPS stops fraud has been steadily gaining ground, including a thumbs-up in an ONC blog that heralded the digital solution as a way to save Medicare money on false prescriptions.
Electronic prescriptions provide a level of monitoring and confirmation that does not exist with the old system of illegibly scribbled notes of tiny pieces of paper. Moreover, it helps enhance patient outcomes and reduce complications by cross referencing prescriptions to prevent potentially dangerous drug interactions.
CVS has become an important player in this area, helping to create the industry powerhouse Surescripts when it merged its EPCS service RXHub with Surescripts, Express Scripts and Medco Health Solutions in 2008. The company is expected to handle 5 million prescriptions for controlled substances among its 7 billion total transactions, which include messages sent between member healthcare organizations, searches of medication histories and e-prescriptions.