A national initiative to assist physicians of Medicare Part D patients in making the switch to electronic prescribing was unveiled today by Medco Health Solutions officials.

Medco will launch a pilot program to study the impact of e-prescribing on patient safety, increased generic drug use and formulary compliance of the Medicare population.

The study will include 500 physicians who treat enrollees in the Medo Medicare Prescription Plan. E-prescribing provider RXNT will work with Medco to provide the physicians with free RXNT e-prescribing software and training.

Over a period of six months, the physicians' rate of generic drug dispensing, formulary compliance and generated safety alerts will be compared to a control group of 500 doctors who will not receive e-prescribing software or training.

"There is strong evidence that e-prescribing reduces medication errors and increases the use of generic drugs and other lower-cost medication options," said John Driscoll, president of new markets at Medco.

"We are proud that Medco will be the first Medicare prescription drug plan (PDP) to research its impact on the Medicare population," said Driscoll. "The program is designed to overcome the cost barriers that have prevented widespread physician adoption of this technology and to verify the benefits of e-prescribing for Medicare Part D beneficiaries."

This is Medco's second major e-prescribing effort. In 2005, the company joined General Motors, Ford and Chrysler in launching the Southeast Michigan E-prescribing Initiative, or SEMI.

A recent analysis of SEMI found that e-prescribing substantially improved patient safety by eliminating medication errors and potential adverse events as well as improving formulary compliance.

"The SEMI program results show that e-prescribing can have a big impact on patient safety and overall health care costs," Driscoll said. "Medicare Part D provides the right opportunity to introduce many more physicians to e-prescribing, a key step toward improving patient safety for this critical segment of the population and reducing the cost of prescription health care in the Medicare program."