Dive Brief:
- New York providers had a March 27 deadline for all prescriptions to be sent electronically but 4,165 requested waivers as of April 1, Health Data Management reports.
- Waivers are granted to providers who can show that complying would cause undue financial burden, technology limitations are "not reasonably within the control of the prescriber." and other exceptional circumstances. The New York State Department of Health granted at least 1,610 waivers due to technical issues.
- Many EHRs are not set up for e-prescriptions, and not all providers have completed the complex process to use them to prescribe controlled substances, as reported by Healthcare Dive.
Dive Insight:
New York was the first state to mandate e-prescribing as a way to mitigate opioid abuse and penalize doctors who fail to comply.
The Medical Society of the State of New York was granted a one-year delay in 2015 because it said not all EHR vendors were in compliance with the Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) guidelines for e-prescribing of controlled substances. Surescripts reports that EHR vendors serving 96% of New York prescribers have that certification, but many smaller vendors do not have it.
Mount Sinai Health System and Montefiore Health System received waivers due to technology issues.
The number of waivers, however, may not reflect the actual number of providers unable to file electronic prescriptions because the state's DOH is "treating the hospital systems as one entity, rather than counting all the physicians within each system," Medical Society of the State of New York President Joseph Maldanado told HealthData Mangement.