Anti Tampering Features

Regarding Medicaid printed prescriptions, CMS has recently clarified their definition of secure printing to enable EMRs to directly print a secure prescription without the need for expensive security paper. Of course, the easiest route to preventing prescription fraud and errors is to directly submit  prescriptions via electronic prescribing. The details of the CMS Guidelines can be found here.

Important:  It is not legal in any state to send scheduled medications electronically.  Scheduled medications must be printed out and signed.

Check the state pharmacy boards for regulations about faxing scheduled drugs.

Printing a Secure Rx from SOAPware

All 3 items are required in order for SOAPware to print secure prescriptions according to the rules.

  1. Micro-printed Signature Line
  2. Borders around the Quantity and Refill elements
  3. Security features and descriptions listed on the prescription

Micro-printing simply means the printing of a defined text string in a font too small to be copied (when it's copied it's either unreadable or appears as a line). Technically, it's defined as a font that is .5 points in size or smaller and requires 5x magnification or greater to read. The potential gotcha with printing these is that a user's printer may not be able to accurately reproduce fonts that small. It's suggested that the user print an Rx and view it under magnification to ensure the micro-printing is visible.

Creating a "Secure" Rx Document Design

Creating a "Secure" Rx Document Design
  1. Open existing Document Design (Tools > Document Designer; Then choose File > Available Designs).
  2. Display Document Design Properties (Edit > Design Properties).
  3. Click on the 'Macros' Tab and check the box labeled - Secure Quantity/Refill Numbers.

Design Types

Design Types

Select the Design Types tab and make sure Rx Manager Design is selected. The user can also select the number of Rx's per page to print.

Insert Rx's

Insert Rx's

In the body of the Rx place the Command Data Items - Rx's - Insert Rx's at the location for the Rx(s) to be inserted.

Signature Line

Signature Line

Create a signature line that repeats "THIS IS AN ORIGINAL PRESCRIPTION" many times. We recommend using all caps to improve readability.

Set the font size of this line to ".5" by selecting the entire text, placing .5 in the Font Size drop down box in the tools bar and then pressing ENTER.

Add Footer

Click Edit > PageHeader/Footer and then Click into the Footer area of the document.

Enter the following text "Security Features: ** surrounds both the Quantity and Refill numbers, the signature line is micro-printed with 'THIS IS AN ORIGINAL PRESCRIPTION' and is viewable under 5x or > magnification."

Then, save the document design by clicking File > Save.