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11/25/20 jh Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS) for pharmacy
November 30, 2020

From: "Joseph Ho" <joseph.ho@hhsys.org>
To: "grp allpharm" <grp_allpharm@hhsys.org>
Cc: "Dana Flores" <dana.flores@hhsys.org>, "April Williams" <april.williams@hhsys.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 25, 2020 11:48:03 AM
Subject: Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS) for pharmacy

Pharmacists,

Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS) in Cerner is being implemented within Huntsville Hospital system in the near future.  As of today, EPCS is being piloted for only a handful of our physicians but the plan is to roll it out to an increasing number of providers over the next few weeks, and many more by the new year.  It may take some time before EPCS is enabled for all providers.

This feature will primarily impact TOC and Outpatient pharmacists but I am sending this to all pharmacists in case you are curious, need to investigate prescriptions, or field questions from providers.

EPCS will make tracking of controlled substance prescriptions easier and make diversion more difficult.  An increasing number of States are mandating EPCS as the only pathway for prescribing of controlled substances and will no longer allow paper scripts, and we have heard some pharmacies are already enforcing this:

Federal and State mandates:

Federal: The SUPPORT for Patients and Communities Act was passed by the federal government in 2018 and includes legislation that requires all controlled substance prescriptions under a Medicare Part D drug plan to be transmitted electronically starting January 1, 2021.  There are ongoing efforts to delay this requirement until 2022 due to COVID.

States: ~12 states currently require EPCS-only for controlled substances, and another 13 states are joining them in 2021 including Tennessee (Senate Bill 0810).

The bottom line: Outpatient pharmacists will begin receiving more electronic prescriptions for controlled substances.  TOC pharmacists will encounter more situations where controlled substances were previously e-prescribed to a pharmacy.  Pharmacists will not be able to send new EPCS prescriptions directly.  Two draft tip sheets are available and linked below that explain further detail about EPCS and its behavior in Cerner:

Draft Tip Sheet - Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS) for Providers

Tip Sheet - Electronic Prescribing of Controlled Substances (EPCS) for Pharmacists Q&A

Please let me know if you have any questions.