As a certified consultant for Practice Fusion, I am constantly asked when I meet with providers...what's the catch? How can this software be free? Am I going to sign up, invest all this time and effort and then 6 months from now, get an invoice in the mail with my new monthly fee? The answer is no. You want to leave and take your data elsewhere, no charge to do so and you have your data within 48 hours. No monthly maintenance fees, upgrade fees, storage fees…how do they make their money? Let’s be clear: there is no company out there developing software for the masses and does it for free. I can’t speak for other free EHR’s and some solutions that come with a price tag, though I have sat on a lot of demonstrations and been shocked by the total cost of ownership for some products but the use of Practice Fusion is completely free. Now what’s missing?
 
To start, the billing component. Practice Fusion has integrated with Kareo (www.kareo.com) to offer a billing solution that is web-based and cost-effective. We use Kareo in house to do billing for our clients and we couldn’t be happier with the product and its capabilities. But I thought Practice Fusion was free? It still is and if you don’t want to use Kareo or go with a clearinghouse that is free, then go right ahead. There is no clause or required partner selection that is enforced. There are other EHR’s out there that only integrate with their own practice management solution so they may not charge you for the use of the EHR, the cost of the practice management solution can leave a pretty serious dent in your pocket.
 
So are Free EHR’s to good to be true? Here is better question to ask: With some many EHR’s being developed, all of them doing pretty much the same thing, will my vendor guarantee me my incentive and still be around in 2015? Here is an example from my past work experience that can help answer the question. I use to work in the CRO (contract research organization) industry where pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology companies would outsource their clinical trials to us. I was working for a company where we would take the paper CRF’s (Case report forms...it is the document that the doctor fills out when he sees a patient enrolled in the trial, it could be over a 100 page long in some trials and it has to be filled out every time the patient would come in) and there was a technology called RDE, remote data entry (it wasn’t a new technology but it started to take off in the early 2000’s). RDE allowed physicians who participated in clinical trials to enter information in electronically via tablet or laptop into a hosted database and not need to be swarmed with paper. There were so many companies popping up all over the place and then a few years later, the bubble burst and there were only a handful….doesn’t that situation sound familiar? I have a feeling the same is in store for EHR companies. I guess time will tell.