IOM Expert Urges Congressional Action to Prevent Medication Errors

Washington, DC — A new TV and print advertising campaign launched today by the Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) featuring Institute of Medicine (IOM) expert panelist J. Lyle Bootman, Ph.D., Sc.D. is calling on policymakers to require electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) in Medicare “before more people die.” According to the IOM, each year some 7,000 people die from medication errors.

Last year, Dr. Bootman co-chaired an IOM committee that recommended that all physicians begin using e-prescribing by 2010 to help reduce the estimated 1.5 million preventable medication errors that occur in the United States annually. Unfortunately, fewer than one-in-ten physicians currently use life-saving e-prescribing technology.

In the new TV advertisement, Dr. Bootman says that, “Thousands of people die every year because of preventable medication errors—many of them are America’s seniors.”

“Requiring e-prescribing in Medicare would dramatically improve patient safety and accelerate physician adoption of other life-saving health information technologies,” said PCMA President and CEO Mark Merritt.

In addition to the new television advertisement, PCMA also unveiled a new print advertisement with the headline: “While You Wait.” The print advertisement urges Congress to require e-prescribing in Medicare as a solution that will help prevent thousands of deaths annually from medication errors.

E-prescribing technology helps consumers avoid medication errors by providing physicians with real-time safety alerts if a new drug would dangerously interact with others that have already been prescribed. Earlier the year, PCMA released a study from the Gorman Health Group that found requiring e-prescribing in Medicare could prevent up to 1.9 million medication errors over the next decade and save billions, even after providing funds for equipment and training. PCMA supports this option because it provides the greatest safety and savings opportunities.

In the 2003 Medicare Modernization Act (MMA), Part D sponsors were required to accept e-prescribing and national standards were created for Medicare. The MMA did not, however, require physicians to actually use e-prescribing and thus far fewer than one-in-ten physicians have chosen do so.

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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.