In August 2017, President Trump announced a state of emergency for the United States in relation to the opioid epidemic. Since that announcement, not much has been stated about solutions that will be put in place to solve this epidemic and decrease the number of opioid addictions and overdoses in the U.S. Within the past week, the Every Prescription Conveyed Securely (EPCS) Act, has been picking up support to become a nationwide effort to mandate electronic prescribing of controlled substances (EPCS) for Medicare beneficiaries.
Medscape quoted Rep. Katherine Clark (D-MA) referring to the act to be a “critical tool for doctors and pharmacists”. With only 14% of opioids being electronically prescribed, it is no surprise e-Prescribing is being set up as the long-term solution. The EPCS Act is presumed to be put into place in 2020 once the bill is passed on Capitol Hill, which already has five sponsors as well as backing by opioid manufacturers and distributors as well as PBMs.
Providers are already raising concerns about the cost of implementing e-Prescribing within their practice. The good news for doctors is e-Prescribing vendors such as RXNT|e-prescribing have an extremely cost-effective product that many practices have already successfully transitioned to using after their state has mandated e-prescribing.
To learn more about e-Prescribing of controlled substances, call us at 1-800-943-7968 Option 3, email us at [email protected], or click on “learn more” below to speak with a RXNT product specialist.
