HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt submitted a report to Congress this week on an electronic prescribing test required by the Medicare Modernization Act of 2003. E prescribing. of course, is expected to produce significant improvements in patient safety, and doctors appear ready to embrace e-prescribing as opposed to electronic health records. According to the HHS press release,

“The pilot project demonstrated that three initial standards are already capable of supporting e-prescribing transactions in Medicare Part D. These are standard transactions that provide physicians with patients’ formulary and benefit information, medication history, and the fill status of their medications. * * * Some of the initial e-prescribing standards tested by the pilot project were found to have potential but still need further development if they are to be adopted as e-prescribing standards. These include standards used to convey structured patient instructions, a terminology to describe clinical drugs, and messages that convey prior authorization information.”

Government HIT magazine reports that the report concludes that e-prescribing remains in its “infancy. “