More than 1 billion e-prescriptions last year moved through Surescripts, the electronic prescription network than handles the bulk of the nation's e-Rx traffic. More than 70% of physicians are now e-prescribers. Delaware, for the second year in a row, ranked as the top state for e-Rx, with 81% of its physicians routinely using the technology, Surescripts reported.
The data are part of the Surescripts' “2013 National Progress Report and SafeRx Rankings.”
Excluding all scheduled drugs—and 48 states currently allow e-prescribing for some of them at some level—1.04 billion prescriptions, including 106 million refills, were e-prescribed in 2013, up 32% over the year prior, according to Surescripts' acting CEO Paul Uhrig.
Looked at another way, 58% of all “eligible” prescriptions (those written and filled within a hospital are also excluded) were routed electronically through the network, according to the report.
In 2001, Surescripts was formed by the two main pharmacy associations, the National Association of Chain Drug Stores and the National Community Pharmacists Association, with both aiming to promote the adoption and use of electronic prescribing. In 2006, Surescripts claimed just 16,000 e-prescriptions.
E-prescribing soared when federal leverage was applied with the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 and the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, both of which provided incentive payments and the threat of Medicare penalties to encourage use of the technology.
Research shows “there is no doubt” that both the incentives under MPPA and the ARRA have boosted the use of health information technology in general and e-prescribing in particular, Uhrig said. And once providers start using the technology, they keep using it, research shows, he said.
Patients also are more inclined to pick up their initial prescriptions if they are written and sent electronically, Uhrig said. “If you have a paper script, you put it in the glove compartment; you forget about it and never go.” But if they know the prescription actually has been sent and is waiting for them, they tend to go to the pharmacy more often.
Why Delaware?
Collaboration, Uhrig said. Prescribers, pharmacies and health information technology developers have to work together before an e-prescribing initiative can flourish, he said. And in Delaware, that level of collaboration is highest.
But it is increasing everywhere else in the U.S., too, the Surescripts data show. While Delaware has been among the top 5 states each year since 2007 when the rankings began, Minnesota ranked No. 2 for the second year running. Meanwhile, Wisconsin (No. 4), North Dakota (6) and Connecticut (7) moved into the top 10 for the first time last year.
In 2013, all states routed at least 45% of eligible prescriptions electronically, a percentage that would have been high enough in 2009 to have been No. 1 by a margin of 13 percentage points, according to the report.
Follow Joseph Conn on Twitter: @MHJConn
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