Monday, April 19, 2004
Savings through E-prescriptions
["Electronic Prescriptions May Save Billions," NCPA Daily Policy Digest, 16 April 2004.]
Though the upfront costs are high, there are apparently big benefits to moving away from the written prescription deciphering routine that has been largely unchanged for decades:
A shift by physicians and pharmacies from handwritten to e-mail prescriptions could cut the nations health care costs by $29 billion, say experts.
There were 3.7 billion prescriptions written in 2003, of which about 8.8 million resulted in serious illness from drug errors.
-About 3 million of the prescription drug errors were preventable.
-About $2 billion in savings would come from reduced hospitals and doctor visits due to fewer prescribing errors.
-About $27 billion could be saved from medications errors because the system would curb duplications and would also immediately inform doctors of cheaper generics alternatives.
["Electronic Prescriptions May Save Billions," NCPA Daily Policy Digest, 16 April 2004.]
Though the upfront costs are high, there are apparently big benefits to moving away from the written prescription deciphering routine that has been largely unchanged for decades:
A shift by physicians and pharmacies from handwritten to e-mail prescriptions could cut the nations health care costs by $29 billion, say experts.
There were 3.7 billion prescriptions written in 2003, of which about 8.8 million resulted in serious illness from drug errors.
-About 3 million of the prescription drug errors were preventable.
-About $2 billion in savings would come from reduced hospitals and doctor visits due to fewer prescribing errors.
-About $27 billion could be saved from medications errors because the system would curb duplications and would also immediately inform doctors of cheaper generics alternatives.
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