Part B News | Editors' Blog

The day my prescription pad was stolen -- and why EPCS is a better alternative

by: Spencer Erman, M.D. Feb 16, 2018

In the latest Part B News we discuss how to deal with a stolen prescription pad in your practice. Years before he became vice president and chief medical informatics officer at Hartford HealthCare, Spencer Erman, M.D., was a family practitioner when he had a pad stolen; he tells us how he handled it, and what he learned.

New York physicians required to submit prescriptions electronically

by: Richard Scott Mar 24, 2016

Come March 27, physician providers in New York will be forced to cast any writing instruments aside -- at least when it comes to writing prescriptions.

CMS will pay 2010 e-Rx bonus cash by end of August

by: Grant Huang Aug 15, 2011

Expect to see incentive money for the 2010 Medicare Electronic Prescribing (eRx) Incentive Program to start arriving. CMS has begun doling out the bonus cash for qualifying providers and plans to finish handing it out by Aug. 31. Also, remember that as of January 2010, CMS began using the new LE indicator on your electronic remittance advices to indicate that a given payment was an incentive payment, not just reimbursement for services. To get even more specific, CMS created 4-digit codes to distinguish the source of incentive (e.g., e-Rx versus electronic health record or EHR bonus).

Study: E-prescribing doesn't reduce errors

by: Grant Huang Jul 11, 2011

Prescription mistakes are not lower with electronic prescribing systems, according to a new study that appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Information Association July 3. About 11.7% of 3,850 e-prescriptions analyzed in the 2008 data contained an error, and 4% of these were significant enough to cause a "serious adverse event." Examples include missing drug doses, durations and frequency.

What happens if you missed June 30 e-Rx deadline? CMS responds!

by: Grant Huang Jul 7, 2011

You had until June 30, 2011 to e-prescribe at least 10 times and report G8553 to show CMS you were e-prescribing successfully. Now that June 30 has come and gone, many of your peers who didn't meet the requirement are betting that CMS will finalize its proposed rule adding four new hardship exemptions for e-prescribing, so they can avoid the 1% payment penalty in 2012. But there is a plan B just in case the proposed hardship exemptions don't materialize.

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