National Incentives for EHR and ePrescribing

Federal law empowers the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) to pay physicians between $44,000 and $64,000 over five years, beginning in 2011, for deploying and using a certified Electronic Health Record to care for patients. ePrescribe Iowa plans to serve as an on-ramp for physicians to a full Electronic Health Record. In addition, federal law already provides approximately $3,500 in annual financial incentives for doctors who e-prescribe now and will impose penalties on those who do not e-prescribe beginning in 2012.

Currently, fewer than one-in-four U.S. physicians write prescriptions electronically, according to Surescripts. This Iowa Health System plan will aim to get physicians on board by providing Allscripts Web-based electronic prescribing free of charge to any Iowa physician and offering personalized outreach and one-on-one training by "electronic health care ambassadors" to help physicians make the transition.

"We expect the combination of HealthNet connect, Allscripts, onsite training, and new Medicare incentives will eliminate the obstacles and provide an on-ramp to electronic healthcare highway and encourage Iowa physicians to embrace electronic prescriptions," Tullman said. "This initiative has the potential to transform the entire state into one in which all prescriptions can be electronically transmitted to the pharmacy, delivering a simple yet comprehensive solution to a key public safety issue."

1.5 Million Medication Errors per Year

According to an Institute of Medicine study, 1.5 million Americans are injured each year and 7,000 die from preventable medication errors. The authors of the 2006 study recommended that all U.S. physicians adopt electronic prescribing by 2010. They cited benefits of e-prescribing that include eliminating errors due to illegible handwriting, creating electronic records to ensure prescription information is not lost, checking for allergies and potentially dangerous drug interactions, and reducing costs by improving efficiency and identifying less-expensive drug options.

Innovative, Software as a Service Solution

The electronic prescribing solution provided by Allscripts is a Web-based solution that requires no download, or new hardware and less than 30 minutes of training before first use. The product, currently used by prescribers nationwide to write millions of prescriptions annually, can quickly generate secure electronic prescriptions and deliver them to the patient's pharmacy of choice.

The statewide e-prescribing program is the latest in a series of partnerships between Iowa Health System and Allscripts. Iowa Health System currently has 559 physicians in 117 clinics using Allscripts as their Electronic Health Record (EHR). The health system also has deployed Allscripts Emergency Department Information System (EDIS) in 11 of its hospitals and urgent care clinics to automate emergency room operations. The EDIS solution also enables ER physicians to view critical patient information stored in their physicians' Electronic Health Record, making it easier for them to deliver emergency care.

HealthNet connect

HealthNet connect, one of the first networks of its kind in the nation to receive funding from the Federal Communications Commission's (FCC) Rural Health Care Pilot Program, enables secure information connectivity between hospitals, patient clinics and a variety of other health care entities. The fiber optic network provides a resource to share health information between participants throughout Iowa and western Illinois, particularly in remote rural areas. Currently 28 hospitals have been connected in phase one of the program.