Electronic-only prescriptions for NY

Later this month, New York will become the first state to require that all prescriptions be written electronically and to penalize physicians who fail to comply. The move is part of a 2012 state law, I-Stop, designed to help fight prescription opioid abuse.

“Paper prescriptions had become a form of criminal currency that could be traded even more easily than the drugs themselves,” said Eric T. Schneiderman, the state’s attorney general, who helped write the legislation. “By moving to a system of e-prescribing, we can curb the incidence of these criminal acts and also reduce errors resulting from misinterpretation of handwriting on good-faith prescriptions.”
Minnesota has a law requiring electronic prescribing but does not penalize doctors who still use paper prescriptions.

Source: The New York Times