(Washington, DC)— In response to the Senate Judiciary Committee’s hearing on electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) of controlled substances, the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) issued the following statement:

“PCMA supports efforts to ensure e-prescribing is used for all prescriptions.  E-prescribing enhances patient safety by providing physicians with comprehensive patient medication histories and automatic electronic safety alerts that help to avoid any adverse drug-to-drug interactions. Safe and secure prescribing of controlled substances through e-prescribing technology should be permitted and is another positive sign toward greater use of the technology.

 

“However, the key issue preventing widespread adoption of e-prescribing is a lack of urgency to do so in the physician community.  Although over 80 percent of doctors understand the benefits of e-prescribing, fewer than one-in-ten actually use it.  Requiring that physicians use e-prescribing in Medicare could save billions and prevent up to 1.9 million medication errors over the next decade.  Furthermore, an e-prescribing requirement in Medicare serves as the first step toward broader adoption of overall health IT.�

 

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PCMA is the national association representing America’s pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), which administer prescription drug plans for more than 210 million Americans with health coverage provided through Fortune 500 employers, health insurance plans, labor unions, and Medicare Part D.