Health Information Compliance Alert

If an eligible professional has an e-prescribing system that meets the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services' criteria, but the pharmacy the patient wants to use can't receive the prescription (either because they don't have an e-prescribing system or their system is down), your practice can report code G8446, "which basically states that the pharmacy was unable to receive the electronic prescription," said Daniel Green, MD, of CMS's Office of Clinical Standards and Quality during a June 17 Open Door Forum.

If your pharmacy doesn't participate but has a system allowing it to convert your e-prescription into a fax (which some pharmacies can do), you should report the G code that shows that you did electronically prescribe (such as G8443, All prescriptions created during the encounter were generated using a qualified e-prescribing  system), because from your practice's perspective,your e-prescription was successful, even if the pharma-