Since the e-prescribing webinars we hosted have taken place, we’re fielding more and more questions about eRx. While many of you are evaluating options for an e-prescribing system, adoption rates nationwide are still low. Why is that? The Washington Post reports “Overall, just 2 percent of eligible prescriptions written in the United States are transmitted electronically, according to the eHealth Initiative, a nonprofit group that promotes technology in medicine.” This article from USA Today entitled “Writing is on the wall for doctors’ e-prescriptions,” dated July of 2008, reports that only about 6% of physicians regularly sent prescriptions electronically in 2007. In this article, The Wall Street Journal reports that “about 35,000, or fewer than 10% of U.S. physicians, prescribe drugs electronically, and about 35 million of more than 3.5 billion prescriptions dispensed by U.S. retail pharmacies were sent electronically.” If your practice is not yet prescribing electronically, why not? What’s the major obstacle? What kind of a motivator is the Medicare E-Prescribing Incentive Program, which may pay the average physician (who sees Medicare patients) over $1500 annually in incentives to prescribe electronically? Please let us know where your practice stands on e-prescribing.