The nation's healthcare system is increasingly shifting away from a fee-for-service model to a more value-based purchasing system. Experts say that health IT will play an important role in this transition.

In addition to electronic health records, Paul DeMuro, a partner at the law firm Lantham and Watkins, said that ePrescribing tools will be central to efforts to improve quality and make healthcare more affordable, according to Becker's Hospital Review.

His comments were made last month at AHIMA's Annual Summit. He stressed that illegible handwriting and misinterpretations lead to countless prescribing errors each year. This makes value-based purchasing systems less viable, as treatment outcomes remain poor.

However, he said in addition to eliminating this risk, ePrescribing also gives physicians the chance to use the system to check their orders for potentially dangerous drug interactions, according to the news source.

Value-based purchasing is increasingly occupying a central role in initiatives from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. The concept has been incorporated into aspects of the ePrescribing and EHR incentive programs, as well as components of the Affordable Care Act.