Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) ERx

Online, June 27, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Medical Practices Will Get Incentive or Penalty as Deadline Approaches for Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) ERx

The deadline for qualifying for the electronic-prescription (eRx) incentive monies and avoiding penalties from a medical professional's Medicare Part B Physician Fee Schedule (PFS) is June 30, 2011. At the end of June, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will stop considering the claims they receive from practices for eRx incentive and penalty payments to be rendered and imposed in 2012. Before the end of June, a practice must submit at least ten eRx using a CMS-qualified eRx service and report it to CMS to qualify for incentives of an additional 1% of the physician's PFS. Penalties for not complying with the eRx criteria of the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (2008), or MIPPA, begin in 2012 at 1% of PFS and increase by half percent each year through 2014.

An eRx benefits doctors, payers, and patients by avoiding errors and cost associated with paper prescriptions by implementing IT; eRx facilitates better patient care also by enabling doctors to access insurance information and work with a patient's out-of-pocket cost of drugs, offering therapeutically viable alternatives.

The eRx legislation resembles that of the electronic medical record (EMR), and though the applications are often incorporated, a doctor doesn't need one in order to have the other: "Medical Practices don't need to be using an EMR to avoid these penalties or qualify for the incentive," says Andrew Graham, CEO of Clinic Service. "Clinic Service is helping physicians start e-prescribing immediately so they can avoid losing thousands of dollars in penalties and qualify to get a 1% increase in reimbursement incentive payments." To help practices better understand the eRx process and implications, Clinic Service recently posted an article on their website, "ERx: An Overview of Incentives, Penalties, and Exemption."