NEWS - Medicare to pay doctors to embrace e-prescribing

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Medicare to pay doctors to embrace e-prescribing

Wed Dec 17, 2008 7:37pm GMT

By Will Dunham

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The future has arrived for U.S. doctors when it

comes to prescribing medications.

Starting next month, Medicare, the federal health insurance program

for the elderly and disabled, will offer financial bonuses to doctors

who prescribe drugs electronically rather than on paper. Doctors who

do not will face penalties from Medicare starting in 2012.

This is intended to help persuade the vast majority of U.S. doctors

who do not " e-prescribe " to start, both to improve efficiency and curb

medical errors.

" The incentives starting January 1st will be just what is needed to

get more and more people to do this, " said Dr. Ted Epperly, president

of the American Academy of Family Physicians representing 93,000

doctors.

" However, it will not be a stampede. It's going to be more of a slow

trickle growing to a moderate flow over six months or so. "

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Read the rest of the article here:

http://uk.reuters.com/article/healthNewsMolt/idUKTRE4BG5KG20081217

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