Electronic prescription network rolls out

However, there's no guarantee that doctors will get on board.

By Tyler Chin, amednews staff. Oct. 13, 2003.

Two years after its startup, SureScript Systems Inc. this month is rolling out an electronic prescription network enabling physicians and pharmacies nationwide to transmit electronic prescriptions and related transactions to each other.

The network will accept electronic transactions from physicians in Maryland and Virginia in October, and California, Illinois and Ohio -- and perhaps Massachusetts -- by the end of the year, said Rick Ratliff, executive vice president of technology and alliances at SureScript. National pharmacy chains representing more than half of the approximately 55,000 pharmacies in the country have agreed to use the network, he said.

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Some observers are skeptical that doctors will use the network. "At the end of the day it all comes down to the doctor and convincing the doctor that it is worth their time and money to invest in electronic prescription technology and utilization," said David Francis, a managing director at investment company Jefferies & Co. in Nashville, Tenn. "Without any meaningful plan to make the doctors more inclined to use it -- economically or technologically -- it's going to turn out to be a while elephant."

To date, only 9% of the country's physicians prescribe electronically, according to SureScript.

Although e-prescribing technology has been available in the outpatient setting for several years, many doctors say they won't use it short of a government mandate. According to them, using the technology doesn't make sense because prescription pads are free and quicker to use. Many Web-based electronic prescribing systems, for example, charge a $30 to $50 monthly subscription fee per physician. Doctors also say they aren't in a hurry to prescribe electronically because they believe the technology benefits insurers and other parties at the expense of their time and productivity.

Ratliff argues that doctors will more than recoup their investment because e-prescribing will save time and minimize telephone tag with pharmacists. He estimated that 450 million of the 3.4 billion prescriptions dispensed annually require physician authorization and result in more than 900 million phone calls and faxes.