Practice Fusion, the largest cloud-based electronic health records (EHR) platform in the U.S., hit the scenes in 2005 with one big advantage; it was free.

As you can imagine, this widely contributed to its success, as free is a stark contrast to the generally very expensive price tags that come along with the programs offered by large health IT companies. However, customers have been taught time and time again there’s no such thing as a free lunch. At least not for long.

The Buy Out

Early this year Practice Fusion was purchased by Allscripts for a whopping 100 million dollars. As you can imagine, they didn’t pay this hefty sum for a product that wouldn’t bring them a considerate return on their investment.

This is where their new subscription fee comes in. Practice Fusion EHR services are now offered at a $100/month subscription fee for each physician that uses it. This means that even a small independent clinic with 3-5 providers will spend $300-$500/month for their EHR services.

Sticker Shock

If you’re suffering from sticker shock you’re not alone. Several sources have suggested that Practice Fusion will likely have a hard time retaining customers now that they’re charging for something that was once completely free. And although they’ve announced that their free users will be switched to a read only version of the software and it will always be free, the odds are high that this won’t be the case. Especially since their former CEO was once quoted as saying “Practice Fusion will always be free.”

There’s a Better Way

If you are using Practice Fusion and want to leave, we can help you archive all your data out of Practice Fusion and into our vendor neutral archive, Fovea. When an EHR system is discontinued or replaced, the historic medical and financial information in the old system needs to be put in a safe, secure place and is to be made available to those who need it. In other words, the client needs to archive it. With Fovea, you will have all of your historical data at your fingertips. It also boasts a long list of features, including:

  • Powerful search engine to search, query, filter, and retrieve historical data
  • Easily download, view, print, or email information
  • Manages discrete, non-discrete, unstructured, and structured data including
  • Stores and organizes various data types including images and PDFs
  • Web-based, no software install necessary
  • Cloud management of data storage, backup, and HIPAA security/privacy compliance
  • Users access data (a) directly in the Cloud, or (b) from the client’s EHR
  • Multi-tenant, single-sign-on
  • Presentation of patient information in a visit-by-visit or a longitudinal view over entire life-time of the patient
  • Users can access information on computers, laptops, iPads, and mobile devices
  • Can scale to virtually any size and service unlimited number of users
  • Tracks and audits each user request and release of information
  • Complies with Medicare and Medicaid standards for security and privacy
  • Certified by ONC, a stamp of quality systems used in developing and hosting the product

You won’t have to worry about extracting your data either. Although Practice Fusion is cloud based, we can still extract historical data via the regular access your providers have now without any additional help from Practice Fusion.

Save Some Green

If the long list of features Fovea is capable of isn’t enough, maybe the money you save will be. You’ll save some major cash by making the switch (a fraction of the cost you’d pay Practice Fusion). Once the legacy data is archived in Fovea, you can dismantle and retire the legacy EHR and stop paying support fees to the legacy vendor. I’ve yet to see a healthcare organization that couldn’t use the extra revenue elsewhere in their budget, regardless of their financial status.

If Fovea sounds like what you’ve been looking for we’d love to chat with you! Contact us today for a free quote or to learn more about our services.