A closer look at EPCS: The benefits of e-prescribing
In response to a national substance abuse crisis, in 2010 the Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) passed a law that allows healthcare providers to prescribe controlled substances to their patients electronically.
This process of electronically transmitting prescriptions is what is now commonly known as Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS) and is done so in a secure manner necessary to prevent over-prescribing.
EPCS consists of many beneficial features that eliminate complications associated with paper prescriptions, such as forged, stolen, or illegible prescriptions by requiring authentication of prescribers, improving security standards, and auditing activity on EPCS platforms.
Patient and provider benefits of e-prescriptions
Prescribing electronic prescriptions (e-prescriptions) offers a great deal of benefits for patients and healthcare providers as the process overall minimizes some of the burden clinicians are faced with and creates a safe and transparent environment for their patients. According to HealthIT.gov, the following factors of EPCS help to improve the experience of providers and patients:
- Enhances Patient Safety by providing alerts to prevent drug-to-drug and drug-to-allergy interactions, inappropriate dosing, and duplicate therapies and patient status.
- Improves Accuracy by reducing errors inherent in paper-based prescribing, including illegible handwriting, misinterpreted abbreviations, and unclear dosages.
- Reduces Fraud and Drug Diversion by ensuring prescriptions are securely transmitted from clinician to pharmacy without the risk of forgery or alteration.
- Reduces Drug Misuse and Abuse by allowing clinicians to see patients’ medication histories at the point of care, which helps them determine if patients are “doctor shopping” or are exhibiting other behaviors associated with drug abuse.
- Improves Workflow Efficiencies by streamlining all prescribing into a single workflow, eliminating the need to switch between workflows (electronic for some medications and paper for others).
The use of EPCS can streamline workflows for providers and they work to ensure the proper prescriptions are distributed to patients in a safe and secure manner. EPCS has helped to nurture the relationship and promote further efficient communication among clinicians and pharmacists as a way to ensure patients' healthcare needs are adequately met.
Combating the opioid epidemic
As the opioid epidemic continues to be a crisis, being declared a public health emergency by the Department of Health and Human Services in 2017, EPCS is a tool for providers to use to help mitigate this critical issue. As previously mentioned, EPCS offers a much more secure process for prescribing controlled substances rather than using paper scripts, as EPCS is heavily regulated and has explicit guidelines.
The DEA Title 21 Electronic Code of Federal Regulations (eCFR) provides details on these regulations. Title 21 holds providers responsible for ensuring the safety of EPCS at their practice and requires providers to register with the DEA to obtain a certified number in order to be permitted to prescribe controlled substances. Moreover, the regulations also require providers to use an Electronic Health Record (EHR) system to carry out these procedures.
Providers who utilize EPCS can help to reduce fraud and instances of controlled substances abuse since one important component of these programs is Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (PDMPs). A PDMP is a database that providers can use to closely examine their patient’s history of dispensed controlled substances. Once the provider and their patient have reached a mutual agreement on a medication to be prescribed, EPCS helps to ensure the prescriptions are securely transmitted from provider to pharmacy.
Mandated states
While EPCS is now legal in all 50 states, not every state has adopted this practice. Research shows that the majority of providers across the country who do use e-prescribing aren’t using the program for prescribing controlled substances. That all changed though during the COVID-19 pandemic when patients were not allowed to physically attend doctor visits or receive their paper prescriptions. Resulting from this was a large increase in remote patient visits conducted via teleconferencing or phone calls as well as an immediate need for EPCS to prescribe controlled substances.
Additional legislation from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) was announced in 2018 and mandated that Schedule II-V controlled substances under Medicare Part D should be prescribed electronically by January 1, 2021. This law is known as H.R. 6 - SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act and due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the CMS has extended the enforced compliance deadline to January 1, 2023. With these two key factors coming into play over the past two years many states have enacted EPCS mandates or plan to do so by the listed CMS compliance deadline.
Check to find out if your state already has an EPCS mandate in effect or if it has one coming.
The benefits of adopting EPCS
The adoption of EPCS presents providers and patients with a secure method of transmitting electronic prescriptions to pharmacies. EPCS is increasingly growing in popularity among healthcare providers in order to remain compliant with the upcoming CMS mandates and to enhance their capabilities of providing quality care.
Technology has infiltrated the majority of industries at this point, especially within healthcare, so to ensure that your practice is keeping up with its constant evolution and your patients are receiving the best quality of care, it’s important to embrace efficiency driven solutions, such as e-prescribing.
Discover more about EPCS and exactly how mandates benefit you and your patients.
