e-Prescribing Utilization Continues to Increase

e-Prescribing has been on a steady growth curve for the past decade and a new study by the American Journal of Managed Care reveals it has increased eight-fold over the past five years.  Survey results highlight the percentage of doctors, nurses and PA’s e-Prescribing in the U.S. has increased from seven percent in 2008 to 54 percent in 2012.  Specifically, the number of e-Prescribers increased from 47,000 to 398,000.

From 2008 to 2012, retail pharmacies e-Prescribing on the Surescripts network increased 24 percent to more than 59,000 pharmacies.  According to the Surescripts website, that number has increased further to 64,000 retail pharmacies and six of the largest mail order pharmacies nationwide.

With meaningful use, e-Prescribing utilization is expected to rise even more.  In conclusion, “this study shows positive emerging trends in electronic prescribing by demonstrating accelerated growth in adoption of electronic prescribing at both provider and pharmacy level.  Continuous efforts and focused investments can be expected to diminish most of the barriers to implementation in the future.”

Click here to read the full summary.

Government Shutdown and Impact on HealthIT

As we enter day three of the government shutdown, below are a few insightful healthIT and e-prescribing related articles that we think are great resources.

Also to keep in mind, the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology website and Twitter handle (@ONC_HealthIT) are not being updated at this time.  You can find the Department of Health and Human Services contingency plan here.

Happy reading and keep up the awesome work!

ONC to take hit in government shutdown

‘Should Congress fail to pass legislation to continue funding the federal government, as it appears likely, the Department of Health and Human Services will be forced to furlough more than half of its employees. And the Office of the National Coordinator for Health IT would be hit particularly hard.

Of the total 184 on-board staffers at ONC, only four would be retained and charged with handling “orderly phase-down and suspension of operations.”

Indeed, a government shutdown would mean ONC will put on hold its standards and interoperability work, privacy and security policy activities, clinical quality measure development, as well as maintaining the Certified Health IT Product List.’

According to Tom Sullivan, Editor, Government Health IT

What the Government Shutdown means for HealthIT Development

‘Non-essential US government operations are shut down as of last night.  That has some impacts on us in the Health IT Standards development space:

1. You won’t be able to test your CCDA documents or your implementation of the Direct transport.  TTT is down (the DNS name isn’t even found right now).
2. IHE testing supported by NIST will be offline (the servers are being shut down).
3. The Certified Health IT Products List won’t be updated.  It will still function, but you won’t see newly certified products after 9/27.  Certifiers can still operate if they have local copies of test tools.
4. Federal Employees engaged in standards development will not be on HL7 or IHE calls, or responding to e-mails.  You may see SOME e-mails today ensuring an orderly shutdown, but that will be it until things are resolved……..’

According to Keith Boone, Technology Blogger, Standards Architect at GE Healthcare, Director at large for Health Level Seven

Government shutdown could cause ‘chaos’ for ONC, health IT

‘John Halamka, FierceHealthIT Editorial Advisory Board member and CIO at Boston-based Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, passed along an email to FierceHealthIT from one of his employees which said that, because the National Insitute of Standards and Technology is closed, certification of technology systems will be delayed. Document verification efforts, instead, will take place manually, it said.’

‘Meanwhile, FierceHealthIT Editorial Advisory Board member Todd Richardson, vice president and CIO at Wausau, Wis.-based Aspirus, Inc., said he isn’t too worried about the shutdown.”Perhaps I’m a mid-west pundit, but I don’t get too alarmed by all the noise coming out of D.C., and certainly am not about to make any rash decisions about which projects I need to look at stopping or slowing down,” Richardson, also a FierceHealthIT Editorial Advisory Board member, said in an email.’

According to FierceHealthIT

Government Shutdown Halts Health IT

‘The shutdown’s impact on health IT goes much deeper than the lapse in social media activity. It’s also being felt by multiple key ONC programs. For example, the administration of the Certified Health Information Technology Product List (CHPL) has stopped reporting to work. The CHPL maintains a public repository of EHR systems that have been tested and certified to ONC standards. Providers can only use products from this list to qualify for MU and receive payments under the program.

Work on the federally-funded Standards and Interoperability Framework has also ceased. This program is a collaboration of government agencies and private organizations geared toward improving the interoperability of health IT systems. In addition, the ONC will be unable to continue other standards, testing, and policy activities — all of which could have a marked impact on health IT privacy, security, and clinical quality measure development.

Finally, even though MU incentive dollars are still being paid out to providers during the shutdown, a lengthy government standoff could stall provider efforts to meet current Stage 1 and upcoming Stage 2 MU requirements. For example, without continued certification and testing, many health IT systems will remain uncertified, potentially stalling a healthcare provider’s ability to meet MU targets.

While the government shutdown isn’t “halting” health IT, it’s definitely an unwelcome obstacle standing in the way of continued health IT progress. Hopefully, the shutdown is short-lived.’

According to Ken Congdon, editor-in-chief, Healthcare Technology Online

Meaningful Consent

Healthcare providers have long advised patients on making informed care decisions.  Now, patients can rely on providers for guidance on how their electronic patient information is shared.   Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HSS) launched, Meaningful Consent, a new site for physicians to better help their patients navigate health information exchange (HIE).  Resources featured include customizable tools, law and policy information, videos and tutorials.

Key background information:

• HIE is the way healthcare providers share and access health information using technology
• HIEs share patient information between participating healthcare providers regarding a patient’s health information for treatment and payment
• Patient education and engagement is important to help them understand their options and outcomes of each option

Meaningful Consent is important to improve healthcare information technology and educate patients on HIE to foster greater trust in physician communication and health technologies. As the trend grows and HIEs evolve, it’s vital to have both physicians and patients engaged and informed to improve care and health outcomes.

Read the HSS press release here.

Healthcare Hashtags and Trends

Utilizing social media in Health IT has its challenges with complex terminology and acronyms.  Every time we tweet from @DoseSpot, the age old debate of whether to use #healthIT or #HIT comes up.  Recently launched, the Healthcare Hashtag Project curated by Symplur, a leading Healthcare Social Media Consultancy, created the project to help individuals and companies address these issues and to:

• Find where healthcare conversations are taking place
• Learn who to follow within a specialty or disease
• Follow trends from conferences in real-time or in archive

The project measures everything from trending hashtags and topics to the most talked about disease states and who is leading the conversations.  We plan to utilize this tool in the following ways:

1. Track trending hashtags when curating Tweets to increase readership
2. Follow influential health IT voices in social media
3. Get involved in conversations at medical meetings by utilizing official conference hashtags

Health Disparities to be Tackled in Meaningful Use Stage 3

While EHR companies are working to meet Meaningful Use (MU) Stage 2 criteria, industry leaders have been collaborating to develop MU Stage 3 requirements.  Last week, the Consumer Partnership for eHealth published an action plan, Leveraging Meaningful Use to Reduce Health Disparities Plan, to leverage MU Stage 3 requirements to reduce health disparities.

According to Healthcare IT News, the proposed action plan:

1. Recommends that EHRs have the ability to stratify patients’ specific conditions by variables such as race, ethnicity, language, gender identity, sexual orientation, socio-economic status and disability status.
2. Calls for greater use of patient data collected and shared through devices such as smartphones.
3. Emphasizes the need to ensure that electronic health information is effectively communicated to patients, so they are better able to utilize its benefits.

The goal is to address health disparities as part of Stage 3 requirements resulting in improved health outcomes and measurement nationwide.  Notable statistics surrounding disparities highlighted in the action plan include:

• 58 million people ages five and older speak a language other than English at home
• 56 million people live with a disability
• Women account for 50.8 percent of the population
• The U.S. Hispanic population reached 50.5 million, increasing 43 percent from the year 2000 and accounting for over half of the total population increase in the U.S.

Medication Lists: Important for Prescribers and Patients

Lists are a part of our daily lives, from to-do lists to grocery lists.  But what about maintaining an active medication list?

Having a personal medication list readily available is vital in the case of an emergency.  The FDA recommends people taking medication:

• Keep the list of your medications with you at all times and let a loved one know.
• Keep a list of your medications and dietary supplements with you at all times, such as in your wallet or purse, and keep a copy in your home.
• Share a copy of the medication list with a family member or friend, or let them know where you keep the list. In an emergency, that person will be able to inform your doctors of the medications and dietary supplements you use.

Make a medication list today and bring it with you to your next doctor’s appointment.  Knowing your medication regimen will allow physicians that e-Prescribe to check for drug and drug-allergy interactions as well as adverse drug reactions.  Get more tips from the FDA at http://www.fda.gov/forconsumers/consumerupdates/ucm096403.htm.

Checking For Drug Interactions

Drug-drug and drug-allergy interaction checks are becoming a new standard in electronic health record and e-Prescribing solutions.  Interaction checks are required for meaningful use and are being used by more physicians every day.

Online drug-interaction checking tools are a great at home resource.  They evaluate both prescription and over the counter medication regimens including vitamins and supplements and flag all interactions in real-time.  As online resources continue to pop up, the latest being from CVS, we compiled a list below of valuable drug interaction tools to jumpstart your search:

• CVS
• Drugs.com
• Healthline
• Medscape
• Walgreens

DoseSpot & Patient Assistance

DoseSpot & Patient Assistance Provide Prescription Savings

DoseSpot and Patient Assistance partnered earlier this year to provide prescription cost savings to patients throughout the United States.

Patient Assistance is a free prescription drug coupon program helping patient’s cut prescription costs. “Patient Assistance Programs and Savings Plans are essential to those that are uninsured and under-insured. At almost $1 billion in savings over the last 6 years we have only begun to scratch the surface in helping those that may have a need. These discounts are truly a win-win-win” said Rex Bowden, Founder and President of PatientAssistance.com. “The patient gets the savings, the pharmacy gets a cash payment at the point-of-sale, and the doctor gets a happier patient that is adhering to their requests.”

As an example, a sample of 84 prescriptions routed from DoseSpot to the patient pharmacies resulted in more than $5,447 in prescription savings for patients. Patient Assistance offers thousands of medication programs and is available nationwide at more than 52,000 pharmacies.

“DoseSpot is overwhelmingly pleased with the savings it has secured for our doctor’s patients” noted Greg Waldstreicher, President, DoseSpot. “We look forward to growing our partnership with Patient Assistance and continuing to provide our e-Prescribing Integration customers with the best e-Prescribing opportunities available.”

About DoseSpot:
DoseSpot is an intuitive and Surescripts Certified e-Prescribing platform specifically designed to integrate with electronic health record, practice management, telemedicine, and billing software. DoseSpot has offered affordable and integratable e-Prescribing solutions to medical & dental software companies since 2009. For more information, please visit www.DoseSpot.com.