Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts to Require e-Prescribing to Qualify for its Physician Incentive Programs
BCBSMA will support new technology licenses for many new program
participants in recognition of the technology's ability to improve
quality and affordability of care
BOSTON--(Business Wire)--
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (BCBSMA) today announced
it is requiring physicians who prescribe medications to electronically
prescribe in order to qualify for any of its physician incentive
programs effective January 1, 2011. BCBSMA is introducing this
initiative in an effort to continuously improve the quality,
affordability, and efficiency of care for its members. The new
requirement applies to both primary care physicians and specialists.
Currently, 99 percent of primary care physicians in the HMO Blue
Network and 78 percent of specialists participate in BCBSMA incentive
plans.
BCBSMA incentive programs reward physicians for meeting identified
nationally recognized quality standards and patient safety goals.
Prior to today's announcement, e-Prescribing was an optional incentive
measure rather than an eligibility requirement for participating in
BCBSMA incentive programs.
The new eRx requirement comes one year before the Center for
Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) deadline for prescribing without
penalty. Believing start-up costs continue to be a challenge for
wide-spread adoption of e-Prescribing, BCBSMA plans to help doctors by
supporting a number of new licenses in 2009. This helps offset the
wait for the e-Prescribing incentive payouts from the CMS which begin
in 2010.
"I'm incredibly proud of Massachusetts' role as the nation's
leader in e-prescribing and as a star innovator of medical technology
for the world. E-prescribing will save money, save time, save doctors
from piles of paperwork, and most importantly, save lives. Medicare
has recently made e-prescribing a condition of doing business, and
we're pleased to see BCBSMA's commitment to advancing patient safety
and affordability," said United States Senator, John Kerry.
According to John Fallon, Chief Physician Executive, Blue Cross
Blue Shield of Massachusetts, "Our incentive programs are designed to
reward doctors for taking steps to improve the quality of care for
patients, and e-Prescribing has certainly proven to increase quality
of care. As a leader in e-Health initiatives and e-Prescribing
programs, Blue Cross Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts will
continue to be prominent in the adoption of e-Prescribing as tool to
improve the quality, safety, and affordability of care for patients
while improving efficiencies for physicians."
A recent patient safety study conducted by researchers at
Dana-Farber Cancer Institute proved the impact of e-Prescribing on
adverse drug events. According to the study, it was estimated that the
nearly 104,000 prescriptions changed by eRx Collaborative prescribers
in 2007 prevented 724 potential adverse drug events, caused by
potential drug-drug or drug-allergy interactions.
In addition to making health care safer, e-Prescribing has an
impact on reducing costs. The prevention of adverse drug events noted
from the Dana Farber study above saved the healthcare system an
estimated $630,000. At the patient level, through physician's adhering
to formularies, co-payments reduce. In 2006, physicians who used an
e-prescribing device were able to choose more cost-efficient drugs and
saved five percent on their drug costs relative to those prescribers
who did not use this technology. Of that savings, BCBSMA members saved
approximately $800,000 in co-payments associated with their
prescriptions.
"e-Prescribing is a powerful technology to minimize errors,
enhance workflow, and reduce costs. I fully support the BCBSMA mandate
to require eligibility checking, formulary enforcement, medication
history, prescription routing and pharmacy initiated renewals for all
clinicians participating in BCBSMA incentive programs," said John
Halamka, CIO, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center and Harvard Medical
School.
Seventy-one percent of eRx Collaborative prescribers say
e-Prescribing saves time for office staff with the majority saving 1-2
hours each day. "With the primary care physician shortage, every
additional moment doctors or their staff can dedicate to patients
makes a difference," added Fallon.
Blue Cross Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is one of the
founding members of the eRx Collaborative. The eRx Collaborative is
dedicated to collaboratively promote and enable the use of electronic
prescribing in Massachusetts to promote and enable the use of
electronic prescribing in Massachusetts to improve patient safety,
health care affordability, quality and delivery. Last year, the
Commonwealth of Massachusetts earned the number one ranking at the
second annual Safe-Rx Awards. The Safe-Rx Award is given annually by
the nation's community pharmacies to the top 10 e-Prescribing states
in the nation.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts (www.bluecrossma.com) was
founded 72 years ago by a group of community-minded business leaders.
Today, headquartered in Boston, BCBSMA provides coverage to
approximately 3 million members. BCBSMA believes in rewarding doctors
and hospitals for delivering safe and effective care, and in
empowering patients to take more responsibility, become educated
health care consumers and become stronger partners with their doctors.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts is an independent licensee of
the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts
Tara Murray, 617-246-4851
Tara.Murray@bcbsma.com
Copyright Business Wire 2008
