I followed up on the eRx NOW suggestion. Have just gotten an email from them that I can join their "early adopter" group.
But...
The e-prescribing module is truly free (at least, as of now), but patients have to be added manually. If you want the "interface", which will automate to an unspecified degree the interaction between your PM/EHR apllication and eRx NOW, it'll cost $295 plus 19.95 a month (and I'm inferring that's a minimum cost; they have some additional qualifying language referring to practice size, etc.).
Has a definite bait and switch flavor that is making me quite leery of proceeding with these guys.
Since this option no longer seems free, I'm looking for some user feedback on the Sure Scripts option within AC. There have been a couple of allusions to difficulties. Is it integrated into AC or free-standing? There is a competitor called RxNT, which seems a little less expensive, but which is not integrated into AC.
Thanks.