EPCS
When it comes to ePrescribing, care providers in the U.S. have to conform to two different sets of regulations: the DEA (Drug Enforcement Administration) and the state board of pharmacy for the state in which they practice. These regulations can introduce barriers such as a second factor authentication to ePrescribe or place an order.
For example, the Ohio Board of Pharmacy requires two-factor authentication for care providers who prescribe or order medications through ePrescribing or CPOE. The DEA also requires two-factor authentication for ePrescribing of controlled substances (EPCS).
Imprivata increases care provider adoption of ePrescribing by eliminating clicks, while at the same time supporting both the DEA and state regulations.
Why ePrescribing?
There are incentives and penalties regarding ePrescribing. Stage 1 Meaningful Use requires that 40% of all prescriptions are electronic. Stage 2 raises the threshold to 65% and introduces an optional requirement for hospitals — a 10% threshold of ePrescribing at patient discharge. Penalties for Meaningful Use start in 2015; the CMS MIPPA program penalties have already started.
The DEA ruling on ePrescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS) published in 2010 has driven Surescripts, EMR vendors and pharmacy vendors to put the proper controls in place to remove the final barrier to ePrescribing of controlled substances.
These incentives are driving electronic prescribing adoption — 69% of office-based physicians are ePrescribing, up from 58% in 2011 according to Surescripts National Progress Report on ePrescribing from 2012.
How Imprivata Helps
The state of Ohio and the DEA EPCS ruling both require two-factor authentication. Imprivata enables authentication directly into the electronic prescribing workflow, replacing the extra clicks of entering a token with the swipe of a fingerprint. That means all state and federal mandates are met, even with two-factor authentication modalities. Care providers experience the same fast, secure authentication signing a prescription as they do when logging into the EMR.
Imprivata OneSign provides a single point of management for all authentication needs across your organization, workstation access, application access and secondary authentication. With the broadest range of authentication modalities available, Imprivata provides any combination needed to support your specific environment and state laws.
Imprivata has enabled two-factor authentication with many leading EMR systems such as Epic, McKesson Horizon, McKesson Paragon, MEDITECH, Cerner, Healthland and Siemens.