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Electronic prescribing system may encourage physicians to choose lower-cost drugs
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Clinicians using an electronic prescribing system appear more likely to prescribe lower-cost medications.
After implementation of e-prescribing, tier one prescriptions (generics) increased by 3.3% and second- (moderately-priced brand name medications) and third-tier (expensive brand-name medications) prescriptions decreased accordingly among clinicians using the system. E-prescriptions of tier one medications increased 6.6%, compared with a 2.6% increase among prescriptions from the control group.
Based on average medication costs for private insurers, the researchers estimate that using such an e-prescribing system at this rate could result in savings $845,000 annually per 100,000 insured patients filling prescriptions.
The data are based on 18 months of data from a comparison of the prescriptions habits of physicians with access to an e-prescribing system from two large Massachusetts insurers, which began using a system that provided community-based practices with free wireless devices and access to secure web portal that color-coded drugs by copayment tier, with a control group of physicians.
Between October 2003 and March 2005 more than 1.5 million patients filed 17.4 million prescriptions.
Arch Intern Med. 2008;168:2433-2439