Medical Society of New York State calls for leeway from new e-prescribing law
The New York law requiring that prescriptions be filed electronically took effect on March 27, but the state's medical society is still looking for certain health organizations to be legislatively exempted from the e-prescribing requirement.
New York offers exemptions for a dozen special circumstances where prescribers might be overly burdened to comply with the Internet System for Over-Prescribing Act, or I-STOP. But in a statement released on March 25, Joseph Maldonado, MD, president of the Medical Society of the State of New York, asked for more, hoping to eliminate the need to apply annually for those waivers.
"There are many physicians across New York State who, by the nature of their patient care setting, write very few prescriptions," Maldonado wrote. "Mandating these physicians to adopt costly and cumbersome technologies that, so far, have proven to be extremely challenging may cause many long time physicians to give up patient care altogether.”
Maldonado added that as a result MSSNY is seeking legislation that would eliminate those physicians requirement to apply for waivers every year. Maldonado pointed out that inappropriate prescriptions due to “doctor shopping” are down by 90 percent in New York. And a recent Surescripts study shows that nearly 50,000 providers in the state have embraced e-prescribing as a way to avoid fraud and abuse – many spurred, no doubt, by the threat of fines from I-STOP.
Despite some early success in preventing the "doctor shopping" that's fueling the opioid crisis, and notwithstanding some impressive upticks in eRx adoption, many smaller providers are still grappling with the technology needed to rout all prescriptions.
"Part of the challenge has been that, until recently, many of the systems physicians and hospitals use had not been certified as required by the federal government. This glitch has caused significant hassles for physicians and hospitals seeking to incorporate these technologies into their electronic medical record systems to enhance, rather than interfere with patient care."
In addition to the legislation of waivers, MSSNY requested that the state make for less paperwork in those instances where a doctor has to write a prescription on paper – such as when technology glitches prevent it.
As it stands, the I-STOP law requires extensive documentation to be submitted to the New York Department of Health, requiring physicians to articulate the specific section of law they're invoking for an exemption, Maldonado wrote.
"This requirement is unnecessarily burdensome to prescribers, and will take unnecessary time away from delivering care. MSSNY is asking that prescribers be permitted to document the issuance of a paper prescription in the patient’s record."
While New York physicians agree with the spirit and goals of the I-STOP law, he added, it's important to build in flexibility so patient care "won’t be unnecessarily delayed by an over-complicated system that deters continuity of medical protocols."
Twitter: @MikeMiliardHITN
Email the writer: mike.miliard@himssmedia.com
