Electronic prescribing is enjoying a resurgence in interest, as the federal government sees it as a way of keeping costs in check. In 2004, steps were taken to create standards, set-aside grant money and incent users.

The impact of ePrescribing can be substantial. The Center for Information Technology Leadership (CITL) estimates an annual savings of $29 billion for nation-wide ePrescribing adoption. Much of that is from reduced drug costs, but there’s value to the medical practice, as well.

For practices, the promise of ePrescribing is that technology will provide information necessary to make fully informed decisions. The result is an increased sense of control and improved office efficiency.

The heart of ePrescribing’s decision-support is the formulary database that supports the software solution.

In early-generation electronic prescribing solutions, decision-support has been limited to designations as to whether a drug is on- or off-formulary or preferred. As systems become more advanced, they are incorporating other managed care decision-support such as step-therapy, prior authorization, restrictions and the like.

This presentation will lay out recent trends and driver, and then describe advanced managed care decision-support so that medical practices will be prepared for the likely.