HHS sets out increased incentives for e-prescribing

NEW YORK Doctors’ notoriously sloppy handwriting on prescription pads could become a thing of the past.

According to the trade publication Health Plan Week, financial incentives could encourage physicians to adopt PDAs instead of paper pads for writing and submitting Medicare prescriptions, also known as e-prescribing.

The Department of Health and Human Services plans to increase Medicare reimbursements for doctors who use e-prescribing in the form of 2 percent incentive payments between 2009 and 2011, under Medicare reform laws enacted this month. At the end of the two-year period, incentive payments will decrease to 1 percent, then to 0.5 percent two years after that.

The department has yet to specify the number of prescriptions doctors will need to submit electronically to qualify. At the same time, doctors who don’t switch to e-prescribing will see their Medicare reimbursements reduced by 1 percent in 2012, with annual 0.5 percent decreases over the next two years.