GetRxConnected.com goes online to push for e-prescribing

SAN FRANCISCO The Get Connected campaign, which is aimed at persuading doctors to switch to electronic prescribing, has started a website called GetRxConnected.com, according to published reports.

The website helps gear doctors towards moving away from handwritten prescriptions to e-prescribing and provides the benefits and general information to connect them to the electronic method.

One of the drawbacks to eprescribing has been the cost to doctors to upgrade to the new technology, but members of the government are hoping to help relieve some of the costs.

Newt Gingrich, founder of the Center for Health Transformation and former Republican speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives has praised legislation introduced by Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., that would provide grants to doctors to defray the costs of e-prescribing software and other tools. The E-Meds bill would also increase payments to doctors who switch to e-prescribing. Gingrich predicted Congress would pass the Kerry bill sometime this year. The bill could save the government billions of dollars in health-care costs, he said.