About 70% of U.S. physicians were using an electronic health record system to electronically transmit prescriptions to pharmacies as of April 2014, according to an analysis by the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.
This represents a rapid scale-up in the use of EHRs with the passage of MIPPA [Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act] in December 2008 (7%) and when the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Programs began (24%) in 2009, according to the ONCHIT report.
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New and renewal prescriptions sent electronically have grown from 4% in 2008 to 57% in 2013.
The figures are based on an analysis of data from Surescripts, which provides IT network infrastructure that transmits electronic prescriptions and other health-related data.
Nearly all community pharmacies across the United States are enabled to accept e-prescriptions, according to the report.
"The growth of physicians and pharmacies e-prescribing has corresponded with a 14-fold increase in the growth of new and renewal prescriptions sent electronically," the report states, growing from 4% in 2008 to 57% in 2013. For 2013, this translates to 1 billion of the total 1.8 billion new and renewal prescriptions being sent electronically.