ePrescribing Industry Information

Resources

ePrescribing Fact Sheet
This document contains general information about electronic prescribing, who is involved in electronic prescribing, standards, reference material from the industry.

NCPDP ePrescribing Standards 101
This presentation contains information about the standards used in electronic prescribing and how to get started with the standards.

Information on the use of NCI Codes in ePrescribing

Recommendations for Specific Code Sets Mapping from SCRIPT v8.1 to 10.6
An NCPDP task group was convened to review mapping for the FMT codes and Provider Specialty Codes between SCRIPT version 8.1 and 10.6 implementation, to have consistent industry rules on the mapping of these code sets. The spreadsheets were approved in February 2012. They are only intended to be used by entities (such as intermediary/switch) that need to map these codes between SCRIPT 8.1 and 10.6 transactions on behalf of someone (such as a customer). Other entities will use the code sets from their compendia files.
Provider Specialty Spreadsheet
Drug Code Mapping Spreadsheet

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) Resources

eHI Resources for Payers, Consumers

Learn about electronic prescriptions

Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act of 2008 (MIPPA) incentive program for electronic prescribers

RxNorm Information

Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology (ONC) HealthIT.gov

[Top]

Industry Initiatives

Pharmacy e-Health Information Technology Collaborative – To assure the meaningful use of standardized electronic health records (EHR) that supports safe, efficient, and effective medication use, continuity of care, and provide access to the patient-care services of pharmacists with other members of the interdisciplinary patient care team. To assure the pharmacist’s role of providing patient-care services are integrated into the National HIT interoperable framework. Roadmap

The National ePrescribing Patient Safety Initiative (NEPSI) is a joint project of dedicated organizations that each play a unique role in resolving the current crisis in preventable medication errors.

The Center for Improving Medication Management is a collaborative forum that establishes project specific priorities to demonstrate the value of pharmacy interoperability with both patients and physicians for the purpose of improving the medication management process.

[Top]

White Papers, Reports

Eprescribing Resources

Clinician’s Guide to e-Prescribing

Physician Practices, E-Prescribing and Accessing Information to Improve Prescribing Decisions Report

March 2012 California Healthcare Foundation Issue Brief

[Top]

Federal Regulations and Information

DEA ISSUES RULE ON ePRESCRIBING
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a Interim Final Rule (IFR) with Request for Comment to provide practitioners with the option of writing prescriptions for controlled substances electronically and permit pharmacies to receive, dispense and archive these electronic prescriptions. The published IFR was posted in the Federal Register Wednesday, March 31, 2010. The new IFR is posted online.The DEA has published guidance at http://www.deadiversion.usdoj.gov/ecomm/e_rx/index.html

NCPDP's Response to IFR

NCPDP's response to the proposed rule issued in June 2008

The NCPDP SCRIPT Implementation Recommendations document has been updated to provide industry standards usage on the SCRIPT transactions. The NCPDP SCRIPT Standard 8.1 and the now allowable SCRIPT 10.6 contain support for electronic exchanges of controlled substance prescriptions. Consult trading partners for when to begin exchanging controlled substance prescriptions. Updated schemas, including updated interim values used in controlled substance e-prescribing are available for download for those implementing SCRIPT 8.1 or 10.6. See Members Section Standards Download.

DEA ISSUES POLICY STATEMENT ON THE ROLE OF AN AUTHORIZED AGENT OF A PRACTITIONER
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) issued a statement of policy to provide guidance under exiting law regarding the proper role of a duly authorized agent of a DEA-registered individual practitioner in connection with the communication of a controlled substance prescription to a pharmacy. The policy statement allows the DEA to recognize a nurse working in a long-term care facility to act as an agent of the practitioner when prescribing Schedule C-III through C-V medications. The policy statement was published in the Federal Register Wednesday, October 6, 2010. The guidance is posted online.

CMS EPRESCRIBING STANDARDS UPDATED
2012 – Industry Recommendations. The industry recommended moving to NCPDP Formulary and Benefit Standard Version 3.0 by July 1, 2014. The industry recommended sunsetting NCPDP SCRIPT Version 8.1 by October 31, 2013.

July 1, 2010 - The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) published to the Federal Register July 1, 2010 an Interim Final Rule (IFR) entitled, "Identification of Backward Compatible Version of Adopted Standard for E-Prescribing and the Medicare Prescription Drug Program (NCPDP SCRIPT 10.6)." The regulation names NCPDP SCRIPT 10.6 effective for use July 1, 2010 and continues to support NCPDP SCRIPT 8.1.NCPDP Response

2008 EPRESCRIBING STANDARDS UPDATED
April 7, 2008 - The Department of Health and Human Services, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services have published a file rule for the next set of uniform standards for an electronic prescription drug program. The standards adopted under the rule will apply to all Part D sponsors, as well as to prescribers and dispensers that electronically transmit prescriptions and prescription-related information about Part D covered drugs prescribed for Part D eligible individuals. The rule adopts four standards for use in e-prescribing:

• NCPDP Formulary and Benefits Standard version 1.0
• NCPDP SCRIPT Standard version 8.1 - for Medication History and Fill Status Notification transactions
• National Provider ID

REQUEST TO NAME SCRIPT STANDARD IN FUTURE MMA REGULATIONS
November 2008 - Based on recommendations from participants in NCPDP Work Group 11 ePrescribing and Related Transactions, the recommendation has been made to the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics (NCVHS) to proceed to the SCRIPT Standard Implementation Guide Version 10.6 by January 2010. SCRIPT Standard Implementation Guide Version 10.6 supports the functionality of previous versions while supporting additional functionality, including needs identified by the long-term care industry. Recommendation Letter

December 2007 - Based on recommendations from participants in NCPDP Work Group 11 ePrescribing and Related Transactions, the recommendation has been made to NCVHS to proceed to the SCRIPT Standard Implementation Guide Version 10.5 by January 2010. Recommendation Letter

[Top]

Meaningful Use

Overview

NIST Certification and Testing - In collaboration with ONC, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) has developed the functional and conformance testing requirements, test cases, and test tools to support the proposed Health IT Certification Programs.

How to Get Involved

NCPDP's Work Groups
The Work Groups are the place where all of the electronic standards for transmission of pharmacy industry data are created and modified. The Work Groups meet quarterly to discuss issues critical to pharmacy industry standards.

WG11 ePrescribing & Related Transactions develops standardized messages for prescribers, pharmacists, payers and/or other interested parties to exchange information.

WG14 Long Term Care, in conjunction with the other Work Groups, guides and advises payers, processors, and providers of the long term care industry and institutional pharmacy programs and their agents on standards implementation, supports data processing initiatives, and provides design alternatives for standards used within the long term care industry.

[Top]