Health Information Compliance Alert
Know the Ins And Outs of Medicare's E-Prescribing Bonus
Question:
Missouri subscriber
Answer: Physicians who adopt e-prescription systems are eligible to earn a bonus of two percent of their total Medicare allowed charges. The physician does not have to register to be considered for the two percent bonus from eprescribing.The physician must report e-prescription activity on 50 percent of the Medicare patients he sees. Reporting includes three G codes, which indicate one of three conditions:
• G8443 -- All prescriptions created during the encounter were generated using a qualified e-prescribing system
• G8445 -- No prescriptions were generated during the encounter, provider does have access to a qualified eprescribing system
• G8446 -- Provider does have access to a qualified e-prescribing system and some or all prescriptions generated during the encounter were printed or phoned in as required by state or federal law or regulations, patient request, or pharmacy system being unable to receive electronic transmission; OR because they were for narcotics or other controlled substances.
Medicare is offering the bonus because "E-prescribing can greatly reduce the number of medication errors that jeopardize the health and safety of Medicare patients and waste precious health care dollars treating conditions that never should have happened," according to CMS Acting Administrator Kerry Weems.
You can find more information about e-prescribing and the accompanying bonus on the CMS Web site at http://www.cms.hhs.gov/PQRI/Downloads/E-prescribingMeasureSpecifications.pdf.
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