The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) recently released a document entitled Medicare's Practical Guide to the E-Prescribing Incentive Program, which explains the E-prescribing Incentive Program, how eligible professionals can participate, and how to choose a qualified e-prescribing system.
The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) provides for physicians and other eligible professionals, who meet Federal requirements as successful electronic prescribers between 2009 and 2013, to receive incentive payments from the Medicare program. The incentive payments will be set at 2 percent for 2009 and 2010, 1 percent for 2011 and 2012, and 0.5 percent for 2013. However, the MIPPA provides for a penalty (in the form of a percentage reduction in Medicare physician fee schedule payments) to arise in 2012 for not successfully satisfying e-prescribing requirements. In October 2008, CMS released a Fact Sheet on the e-prescribing incentive.
In October 2008, CMS also hosted a National E-Prescribing Conference to educate providers and beneficiary constituencies on the e-prescribing program and to promote e-prescribing throughout the health care community. The slide presentations from the conference are available here and video from the conference is available here.
