In an interim final rule released Tuesday, CMS "recognized" the use of version 10.6 of the National Council for Prescription Drug Programs SCRIPT Standard for electronic prescribing under the Medicare Part D drug benefit, Health Data Management reports.
According to CMS, "recognition" means the agency approves the use of the updated standard for e-prescribing; however, it is not yet formally adopted as the new standard.
New features in the version 10.6 standard will allow users to provide:
- Prescriber order numbers;
- Drug NDC source data;
- Pharmacy prescription fill numbers; and
- Date of prescription sale.
According to CMS, the new functions will "facilitate better record matching, the identification and elimination of duplicate records, and the provision of richer information to the prescriber between willing trading partners."
CMS plans to publish the final version of the interim final rule on July 1 (Goedert, Health Data Management, 6/29).