eRx Prescribing Program Payouts On The Rise

By Katie Wike, contributing writer

CMS says incentive payments under the e-prescribing program totaled over $390 million in 2013.

A CMS report shows an increase in the number of providers receiving incentive payments from the eRx Prescribing Program. According to Fierce EMR, the report found eligible professionals earned a combined $390,603,021 in incentive payments during the 2013 program year alone.

“Participation in PQRS and the eRx Incentive Program has increased steadily over time as payment adjustments associated with these important programs have been implemented, on the way toward the use of a value-based payment modifier as authorized under section 3007 of the Affordable Care Act,” wrote CMS.

The report also found:

• the number of eligible professionals who qualified for the eRx program increased every year of the five year program
• a total of $171,732,673 in eRx incentives was earned in 2013
• this included 259,401 eligible professionals within 54,854 practices
• the average eRx incentive payment was $662 per professionals and $3,131 per practice

Nearly five of 10 eligible professionals participated in the program in 2013, and CMS reports more than 14 million patients received an electronic prescription through the eRx Prescribing Program. While this number appears significant, CMS points out 49,576 professionals were still subject to a 2015 payment adjustment. Of those, 80 percent were subject to the adjustment because they did not participate in the program.

“Going forward, eligible professionals can continue to earn incentives under the Medicare EHR Incentive Program, in which they must demonstrate as a core measure that more than 40 percent of all permissible prescriptions they write are transmitted electronically using certified EHR technology,” explained CMS. “Just over half of the eligible professionals earning an eRx incentive in 2013 were already receiving an incentive from the EHR Incentive Program.”