CMS Clarifies Electronic Prescribing Rule

Family physicians who send patient prescriptions electronically -- or who plan to use this technology in the near future -- will welcome recent clarification of a CMS policy. Tamper-resistant computer paper will not be mandatory when phase two of tamper-resistant prescription policies for Medicaid outpatient drugs go into effect on October 1.

Phase one of the federal tamper-resistant policy (1-page PDF; About PDFs) has been in effect since April 1, and the agency had indicated that copy-resistant paper would likely be required for all printed prescriptions when the second phase goes into effect in October.

This latest ruling, however, clarifies previous CMS statements regarding paper specifications for paper used for prescriptions generated from electronic health records, or EHRs, or e-prescribing applications. The agency now says that "while special paper may be used to achieve copy resistance -- it is not necessary."

Steven Waldren, M.D, director of the Academy's Center for Health Information Technology, said the agency's redefined rule means family physicians won't have to purchase "expensive" tamper-resistant paper for their computers.

Waldren credited the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs, or NCPDP, for spearheading an industry forum earlier this summer. It was at that meeting that stakeholders, including CMS; the Physicians' EHR Coalition, of which the AAFP is a member; pharmacy associations; state Medicaid directors; and EHR groups, reviewed the second phase of the CMS tamper-resistant regulations.

According to Waldren, industry standards for copy-, erasure/modification- and counterfeit-resistance were clarified as a result of that meeting.