Pros and cons of electronic prescriptions
New rules have gone into effect requiring doctors in New York to send prescriptions in to pharmacies electronically instead of handing patients a handwritten prescription slip.
The requirement is intended to help fight prescription painkiller abuse and reduce errors. E-prescribing is part of a nationwide trend, although it's voluntary, not required, most places. About 60 percent of prescriptions are now sent electronically, Paul Uhrig, chief administrative officer of Surescripts, the leading network for transmitting e-prescriptions, told the Associated Press.
"It's available in most states. New York is the first to make it mandatory with penalties if you don't do e-prescribing," CBS News medical contributor Dr. Holly Phillips told "CBS This Morning." Doctors who don't comply could face the possibility of fines, losing their license, or potentially even jail time.
It's part of an initiative called ISTOP, which stands for Internet System for Tracking Over-Prescribing. The aim is to keep better track of who's prescribing addictive painkillers like Vicodin and Percocet and to cut down on patients "doctor shopping" for a physician to get more drugs.
Under the new rules, paper prescriptions or those that are phoned in will no longer be accepted at New York pharmacies. There are some exceptions for medical emergencies and for nursing homes, and some doctors have been granted an extension of the deadline.
What was wrong with old-fashioned paper prescriptions?
"They could be stolen, they could be forged, in some cases they were bought and sold," Phillips said. "A doctor might write a prescription for 8 pills and patients were able to just ad a little '1' on there and change it to 18 pills. So the idea here is that if you get rid of all the paper prescriptions, you could get rid of some of that forgery."
Several layers of security measures are in place to help protect the electronic system from hacking or from someone attempting to impersonate a doctor.
One downside, Phillips said, is that the new system is more time consuming for doctors. "I'm finding it laborious. But there are other benefits to it. For instance, doctors are notorious for having bad handwriting. I like to think I'm not a part of that, but I am. And so by doing it on the computer you can cut down on some of those errors just from poor handwriting."