Group Practices

With pilots aplenty behind it, e-prescribing is a technology on the verge of widespread adoption.

It has come time in the healthcare industry to take stock and examine where e-prescribing has been, where it is headed and, more importantly, how all industry players can come together to make it a success. Over the past few years, several large, statewide e-prescribing programs have been launched and are in various stages of deployment and optimization. The programs often have been referred to as “pilots.” To date, the results have been uniformly positive, in a variety of markets, so much so that one can comfortably reach the following conclusion: The industry’s pilot has been completed, and e-prescribing improves patient care, adds efficiency to practices and pharmacies, and reduces overall pharmacy costs by encouraging on-formulary and generic script writing where appropriate.

Additionally, the legislative activity surrounding e-prescribing at the state level continues to be encouraging with recent activity demonstrating an increasing pace of state support for e-prescribing. We are entering the next phase of this technology as we move beyond pilots into widespread adoption. As with any initiative, it is important to weigh the pros and cons and learn from these pilots about best practices in adoption.