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Program Aims To Get All Area Docs To Prescribe Electronically

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By RICHARD MULLINS | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 16, 2009

TAMPA - The University of South Florida Monday launched a drive to persuade area doctors to ditch their paper medical records and switch to an all electronic prescriptions system.

Funneled through a public/private partnership, the university will help deploy more than 100 medical software trainers, plus a range of subsidies, to help convert physicians' offices to go all electronic.

Funded in part with economic stimulus dollars, the project matches USF Health and Chicago-based Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions Inc., a national, for-profit provider of electronic medical records systems.

Current law allows federal regulators to pay physicians between $44,000 and $64,000 over five years to deploy electronic records systems for patients, starting in 2011, plus $3,500 in annual incentives for upgrading. In theory, federal law can impose penalties on doctors who do not "E-prescribe" by 2012.

Currently, program officials believe less than 10 percent of physicians in the U.S. currently write prescriptions electronically. The program aims to eventually reach doctors across the 10-county, Tampa Bay area.

Reporter Richard Mullins can be reached at (813) 259-7919.

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