HEALTH INFORMATION EXCHANGE SYSTEM STAGE ONE: ELECTRONIC PRESCRIBING

(a) In stage one of implementing the health information exchange system, the commission shall support and coordinate electronic prescribing tools health care providers and health care facilities use under Medicaid and the child health plan program. (b) The commission shall collaborate with, and accept recommendations from, physicians and other stakeholders to ensure that the electronic prescribing tools described by Subsection (a): (1) are integrated with existing electronic prescribing systems otherwise in use in the public and private sectors; and (2) to the extent feasible: (A) provide current payer formulary information at the time a health care provider writes a prescription; and (B) support the electronic transmission of a prescription. (c) The commission may take any reasonable action to comply with this section, including establishing information exchanges with national electronic prescribing networks or providing health care providers with access to an Internet-based prescribing tool the commission develops. (d) The commission shall apply for and actively pursue any waiver to the state Medicaid plan or the child health plan program from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services or any other federal agency as necessary to remove an identified impediment to supporting and implementing electronic prescribing tools under this section, including the requirement for handwritten certification of certain drugs under 42 C.F.R. Section 447.512. If the commission, with assistance from the Legislative Budget Board, determines that the implementation of an operational modification in accordance with a waiver the commission obtains as required by this subsection has resulted in a cost increase in Medicaid or the child health plan program, the commission shall take the necessary actions to reverse the operational modification.