Progress Reports

• Prescription Benefit: Electronic responses to requests for prescription benefit information grew 125% from 188 million in 2009 to 423 million in 2010.
• Medication History: Prescription histories delivered to prescribers grew 184% from 81 million in 2009 to 230 million in 2010.
• Prescription Routing: Prescriptions routed electron­ically grew 72% from 191 million in 2009 to 326 mil­lion in 2010.
• EMR vs. Standalone E-Prescribing Software: About 79 percent of prescribers used EMRs in 2010, up from 70 percent in 2009.

• Prescribers: The number of prescribers routing prescriptions electronically grew from 156,000 at the end of 2009 to 234,000 by the end of 2010-representing about 34 percent of all office-based prescribers.
• Payers: At the end of 2010, Surescripts could provide access to prescription benefit and history information for more than 66 percent of patients in the U.S.
• Community and Mail Order Pharmacies: At the end of 2010, approximately 91 percent of community pharmacies in the U.S. were connected for prescription routing and 6 of the largest mail order pharmacies were able to receive prescriptions electronically.

The federal government is playing a significant role in influencing the growth of interoperable health technologies.

Drivers of Interoperable Healthcare in 2010

• HITECH: Incentive programs offered through the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health Act.
• MIPPA: Incentive programs offered through the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act.

Future Drivers of Interoperable Healthcare Growth

• PPACA: Reform efforts under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.
• EPCS: DEA regulatory changes that give prescribers the option of issuing prescriptions for controlled sub­stances electronically.

To support the continued growth of interoperable healthcare-including e-prescribing-Surescripts recommends the following:

• Drive utilization: Continue to develop programs that focus on driving the utilization of e-prescribing and interoperable health technologies.
• Bridge adoption gaps: Support gaps in adoption by smaller practices, by independently owned pharmacies and by state Medicaid programs.
• Promote clinical collaboration: Support emerging collaborative models of care.