While the successful achievement of industry interoperability has been given a 10 year window by the ONC, we luckily don’t have to wait that long — or at all — to see health IT interoperability in action. Electronic prescribing is the perfect example of successful interoperability happening right now, and in honor of National Health IT Week, e-prescribing platform Surescripts has created an infographic illustrating the evolution of electronic prescribing.
Here are a few milestones of importance:
- Electronic prescribing became legal nationwide in 2007
- The industry recognizes the need for health IT and enable information exchange, with the passing of the Medicare Improvements for Patients & Providers Act (MIPPA) in 2008
- In 2008, the DEA proposed a rule to allow the electronic prescribing of controlled substances
- The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act and creation of the Meaningful Use Program in 2009 provides the incentives and penalties to fuel progress
- In 2010, the Surescripts processed 326 million electronic prescriptions, then doubling utilization between 2010 and 2012, and Meaningful Use Stage 2 is introduced
- In 2014, the industry was given an opportunity to further extend electronic prescribing into new markets — with Long Term Care facilities required to follow the NCPDP SCRIPT standard
