There is a story in today's Wall Street Journal about the bi-partisan congressional effort that "would take a carrot-and-stick approach that would first grant doctors additional Medicare payments if they adopt digital-prescribing technology, then in later years dock their fees if they have failed to make the shift."
The story notes that that only about 35,000, or less than than 10%, of U.S. doctors use e-prescribing. The advantage to e-prescribing is that it can reduce administrative overheads as well as look for dangerous drug interactions.
The idea is that since most doctors see Medicare patients, this approach would create momentum not only for e-prescribing for all patients but for electronic health records.
Although the details are not yet finalized, it is likely that Medicare payments to doctors would be increased 2% in 2009 and 2010, then less over the next three years for those who use e-prescribing, while for those that don't use would see their payments cut by 1% in 2011, ramping up to 2% (and probably more) for 2013 and beyond.
I suspect that this same approach will be used for electronic health records as well.
