Congress considers mandate for Medicare e-prescribing

Bipartisan bill would boost E&M payments for doctors who prescribe electronically but cut these reimbursements for physicians who don't.

By Dave Hansen, AMNews staff. Jan. 7, 2008.

Washington -- Congressional patience with the pace at which physicians are adopting electronic prescribing seems to be wearing thin. House and Senate lawmakers have introduced legislation that would mandate e-prescribing for Medicare beginning in 2011.

At a Dec. 4, 2007, Senate Judiciary Committee hearing, lawmakers also expressed frustration with the lack of movement toward allowing e-prescribing of controlled substances.

Sponsors of the two electronic prescribing bills tried to fold the legislation into a measure to prevent next year's 10.1% Medicare physician payment cut. But the language was not included in a last-minute Medicare package.

Rep. Allyson Y. Schwartz (D, Pa.), one of the bill's sponsors, said that if the measure didn't pass in 2007, she would press for hearings and continue to vet the legislation in 2008, according to her spokeswoman, Rachel Manguson.

The bills would fine physicians who continued writing paper Medicare prescriptions after Jan. 1, 2011. They would allow the Health and Human Services secretary to give one- or two-year exemptions to physicians facing hardships buying and implementing the technology. The measures would give HHS discretion to determine what constitutes a hardship, according to the office of Sen. John Kerry (D, Mass.), a sponsor of the Senate bill.

The legislation, the Medicare Electronic Medication and Safety Protection Act, also would provide one-time Medicare grants to offset the costs of e-prescribing technology. The grants would be $2,000 in the first two years of implementation, $1,500 in the next two years, and $1,000 permanently thereafter.