Surescripts announced it will adopt a technical standard that will allow physicians to e-prescribe and access prescription information from pharmacies and health plans through electronic health records software. Federal regulators are recommending that the standard be used as one of the ways to demonstrate meaningful use of EHR adoption and implementation.

Surescripts is the first e-prescribing network provider to commit to adopting this standard. Will its competitors follow? Time will tell, but I'll wager that they will. For one, the standard, NCPDP SCRIPT 10.6, has influential supporters, namely the Health IT Policy Committee and the National Committee on Vital and Health Statistics.

Surescripts is a big name in the industry with a large client base. It's not unlike CMS as the biggest payer in the market. E-prescribing is growing rapidly, partly because of the push given by states and the federal government. It makes sense that adopting this standard will further increase the number of prescriptions electronically routed, which obviously benefits Surescripts.

In this particular case, it appears that meaningful use is driving adoption of standards among IT vendors. It will be interesting to see what other areas meaningful use will impact the health IT market.