ASAM Provides Comments on Regulatory Changes to Electronic Prescribing

On October 5, ASAM submitted its response to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services’ (CMS) Request for Information (RFI) on Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS). The RFI solicited feedback from stakeholders about whether CMS should include exceptions to the electronic prescribing of controlled substances and under what circumstances, and whether CMS should impose penalties for noncompliance with this mandate in its rulemaking, and what those penalties should be.

ASAM’s response stressed that in general, ASAM supports EPCS as a way to assure quality and reduce errors and fraud in the transmission of prescriptions from the prescribing health care practitioner to the dispensing pharmacist. However, it may not be financially feasible for small practices to implement the required technology. Therefore, ASAM recommends CMS consider the financial impact of this requirement on small practices that do not yet have electronic systems in place that allow for EPCS, and extend the waiver timeline as well as provide additional resources or incentives for these practices to adopt such technology.

Read ASAM’s comment letter here.

Read the proposed rule here.