US physicians concern over DEA e-Rx rule

The American Academy of Family Physicians is concerned that a compromise by the US Drug Enforcement Administration to ease the adoption of electronic prescribing (Marketletter June 30) will lead to "security 'overkill'." Steven Waldren, director of the AAFP's Center for Health Information Technology, welcomed the broad direction of the DEA's initiative but warned that further scrutiny of the federal agency's proposals will be required.

Dr Waldren noted that the use of multiple safeguards designed to make fraudulent access to controlled drugs more difficult run the risk of cancelling out the efficiency gains of e-prescribing. In particular, the AAFP questions the need for additional user names, passwords, personal identification numbers and crypto keys. The latter are devices that unlock certain program functions on a personal computer, such as issuing a prescription.

Despite concerns about the DEA's attempts to restrict access to controlled drugs, Dr Waldren said he expects no significant opposition to reform. The federal agency's public comment period ends on September 25.