(Washington, D.C.) — The Pharmaceutical Care Management Association (PCMA) released the following statement on the House Energy and Commerce Health Subcommittee’s consideration of H.R. 3528 / S. 2460 the Every Prescription Conveyed Securely Act, which requires electronic prescribing (e-prescribing) for controlled substances in Medicare Part D.
“E-prescribing helps ensure each prescription is written by a legitimate provider and filled at a legitimate pharmacy. This bill is an important solution that attacks the opioid epidemic by preventing doctor shopping and drugstore and reducing costs inflicted on patients and taxpayers.”
A new study by Health IT Now’s Opioid Safety Alliance finds H.R. 3528 would reduce federal spending $13 billion over 10 years. This is consistent with a separate study by Visante and Point-of-Care Partners that finds mandatory e-prescribing of controlled substances in Medicare would save the federal government more than $2 billion annually – due to decreased treatment costs and greater efficiencies in physician offices and pharmacies, among other factors.
A broad coalition supports passage of H.R. 3528, including:
- Pharmaceutical Care Management Association
- CVS Health
- Express Scripts
- Magellan Health
- Prime Therapeutics
- Albertsons Companies
- America’s Health Insurance Plans
- AmerisourceBergen
- Association for Accessible Medicines
- College of Healthcare Information Management Executives
- Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society
- Health IT Now
- Imprivata
- National Coalition on Health Care
- National Consumers League
- National Association of Chain Drug Stores
- National Community Pharmacists Association
- Rite Aid
- Surescripts
- Walgreens
