What Is the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act?
The Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act (MIPPA) went into effect January 1, 2009. Prescribers who use a qualified e-prescribing system to prepare and send electronic prescriptions as defined by MIPPA are eligible to receive higher levels of reimbursement under Medicare through 2013, with a maximum reimbursement rate of 2% available in 2009 and 2010. Prescribers who do not start to send e-prescriptions by 2012 will suffer a penalty on their Medicare reimbursements starting at 1 percent.
Qualified systems include the ability to generate a medication list (with information from payers or pharmacies, if available); select medications, transmit prescriptions electronically using the applicable standards and warn the prescriber of possible undesirable or unsafe situations; provide information on lower-cost therapeutically appropriate alternatives; and provide information on formulary or tiered formulary medications, patient eligibility and authorization requirements received electronically from the patient's drug plan.
For more information on the MIPPA program, click here.
