Is Advertising The Answer For Cutting EHR Costs?

Katie Wike | Healthcare Technology Online | August 13, 2013

With rising costs surrounding EHR software and fees, providers are turning to services that display advertisements as a way to save money.

...whether replacing an existing system or starting new, many providers are looking to save money by turning to cloud-based systems supported by advertising.

Vendors offering cloud-based services are able to make available to providers EHRs for little to no cost with one catch - ads directed toward physicians are part of the package. According to EHR Intelligence, “At this point, most physicians have acknowledged that no EHR is ever going to be perfect.  So why pay thousands of dollars when you could be frustrated for free?”...

...American Medical News drives home the popularity of ad-based systems by pointing out, “Practice Fusion has an ad-free version of its EHR that physicians would pay a monthly subscription fee to use,” but only 1 percent of its clients choose it over the ad-based version.

Open Health News' Take: 

For many small practices, a free cloud-based EHR solutions that displays ads to physicians may in fact be a great solution. Especially if its a good EHR system. Another alternative small practices might consider using is an open source EHR solution like OpenEMR, OpenMRS, or OSCAR.  -  Peter Groen, Senior Editor, OHNews