E-Prescribing Use Continues To Grow

The use of e-prescribing nearly tripled last year, but still only accounts for the minority of prescription transactions in the U.S., according to a new report.

In 2009, of the 1.63 billion prescriptions written in the U.S., 190 million prescriptions -- or 12% -- took place electronically, according to the results of an annual audit of e-prescribing usage conducted by Surescripts, which operates the largest e-prescribing network in the U.S Still, the total e-prescriptions in 2009 climbed significantly from the 68 million and 29 million, respectively, that took place in 2008 and 2007.

Approximately 200,000 U.S. clinicians, or about 1-in-3 office-based physician, nurse practitioner, and physician assistant in the U.S., used e-prescribing at least once a month last year, according to Surescripts.

With the federal government's push for the adoption and meaningful use of health IT, Surescripts projects that e-prescriptions will grow to 300 million in 2010, said a spokesman.

The U.S. Health and Humans Services Department's "stage one" meaningful use criteria--for which healthcare providers can become eligible for financial rewards -- includes several objectives that are supported by e-prescribing systems.

Those objectives include maintaining active patient medication lists; generating and transmitting permissible prescription electronically; implementing drug formulary checks; and performing medication reconciliation between care settings

In addition to evaluating usage of e-prescribing systems to transmit patient drug orders to pharmacies, Surescript's audit this year also for the first time evaluated usage of two important e-prescription functionalities -- confirming patient's prescription insurance eligibility prior to sending the order and electronically cross referencing patient's medication history with pharmacies and payers.

With those new audit measures in mind, Surescripts also ranked e-prescription usage in each state. Massachusetts ranked first among states in e-prescribing, with 11 million prescriptions sent electronically by Bay State clinicians in 2009, representing about 32.3% of all prescriptions that were processed in the state. Here's a list of all 50 states -- plus Washington, D.C. -- and how they ranked for e-prescription usage in 2009, according to Surescripts:

1. Massachusetts

2. Michigan

3. Rhode Island

4. Delaware

5. North Carolina

6. Connecticut

7. Pennsylvania

8. Indiana

9. Hawaii

10. Florida

11. Iowa

12. South Dakota

13. Tennessee

14. Oregon

15. Maine

16. Minnesota

17. West Virginia

18. New Hampshire

19. Ohio

20. Virginia

21. Vermont

22. Texas

23. Washington

24. Missouri

25. Maryland

26. Georgia

27. Alabama

28. Arizona

29. Kansas

30. Illinois

31. Wisconsin

32. New Jersey

33. Oklahoma

34. Colorado

35. Arkansas

36. New York

37. Idaho

38. Nebraska

39. South Carolina

40. Utah

41. Kentucky

42. Louisiana

43. New Mexico

44. Nevada

45. California

46. Mississippi

47. Wyoming

48. Montana

49. District of Columbia

50. Alaska

51. North Dakota