Providers who want to avoid next year’s financial penalty for a failure to make a sufficient number of electronic prescriptions will need to act quickly. Under the current eRx Program, providers must report the eRx measure for at least 10 unique Medicare encounters before June 30, 2011. Providers may report in several ways – a “fact sheet" provided by CMS explains the available reporting options. Failing to report the required measures by the deadline may result in a provider receiving only 99% of the otherwise payable physician fee schedule payments due for services provided in 2012.

Providers intending to report these measures should have already adopted a qualified eRx system and begun reporting. Providers that have not, however, can take some solace in the knowledge that CMS, in a recent notice of proposed rule making (NPRM) has better aligned the eRx Incentive Program with the EHR Incentive Program....