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U.S. Rep. Renee Ellmers has introduced legislation that would allow small doctor’s offices to avoid a new requirement in the health care overhaul that passed in 2010.

The health care law requires hospitals and doctors to offer electronic prescriptions as a requirement to show that they are following new rules for electronic health records.

The federal government has been pushing for the increased use of electronic medical records, including a switch to what is known as e-prescribing, or offering prescriptions without using paper.

But Ellmers, a Dunn Republican, argues that many small hospitals and doctor offices don’t yet have the capacity to prescribe electronically. Ellmers is a registered nurse who helps run a medical practice for her husband, a surgeon.

N.C. Gov. Beverly Perdue says the federal budget proposal unveiled by the GOP in Congress this week could decimate the way states pay for health care for their poorest residents.

The 2012 budget proposal from U.S. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan would undo the current funding formula for Medicaid. Instead, he would shift it into state-based block grants.

The Ryan budget says the current cost-sharing system between the federal and state governments “gives states a perverse incentive to grow the program and little incentive to save.”

But Perdue disagrees.

She was one of 17 Democratic governors who signed a letter Monday urging congressional leaders to oppose the Medicaid change.

Calling the proposal “simply unacceptable,” the letter said that block grants with an annual spending cap would be quickly outpaced by the growth in states’ needs.