Epic Systems Corporation, better known as Epic EMR Software, was founded in 1979 and currently employs over 10,000 employees. Epic, headquartered in Verona, Wisconsin, has received several honors and distinctions throughout the years, including Best in KLAS’ best overall software suite category for the past eight years. Epic is a cloud-based EHR that caters to a wide range of specializations. It supports approximately 40 healthcare specializations, ranging from small, rural hospitals and individual clinics to multi-specialty hospital groups and hospice care providers.
Like most other big EHR companies, Epic EHR does not publicly disclose its pricing model. Instead, you’ll have to request a custom quote, but it can be a daunting experience going in blind. So, this blog will help you manage your expectations before you ask for a quote.
First of all, there are only ballpark figures available on the internet, so take every figure you read with a grain of salt as actual prices will vary.
With that said, we will look at how the size of your practice, the feature set you require, and your specialty will affect the Epic EMR cost. However, before we get to that, you will have to decide whether you want a monthly subscription or a one-time purchase and whether you want local or cloud hosting.
Local Hosting vs. Cloud Hosting
If you opt for local hosting, you will have to install local servers and link all our devices to them. While with cloud hosting, you won’t need anything more than an internet connection with good bandwidth and some computers. As such, the setup cost of local hosting is drastically more than cloud-hosted solutions.
Epic EMR cost will also change depending on this very crucial decision. Cloud hosting will generally cost more per month, but with it, you’ll receive updates more frequently, and customer support has been reported to be better for cloud-hosted solutions.
Large hospitals will often employ local servers as the amount of patient throughput they experience, cloud-hosted solutions will lag. Moreover, they can afford to hire in-house IT specialists in case something goes wrong. However, if you’re a small practice or a solo practitioner, cloud hosting is the way to go for you, not only will Epic EHR cost less this way but there are fewer maintenance and setup costs.
One time Purchase vs. Monthly Subscription
Often larger practices and hospitals will opt for a one-time purchase. This obviously costs a lot. Even after spending this much money, customer support and updates will be very limited. So, we would highly recommend going for a monthly subscription. To help with this decision, here are the pros and cons of Epic EMR as a Saas ( software as a service ) model;
Pros
- It is suitable for users that cant manage a one-time payment.
- The contract terms are lenient, and usual contract lengths range from 2-4 years.
- Customer support is very active.
- You will always have the most up-to-date version of Epic EMR.
- You can easily add more functionality and providers
Cons
- With Epic EMR as a SaaS, you won’t own the license to the software.
- You will be heavily reliant on the Epic EMR company and deal with functionality and price changes.
Size of Practice
The cost of Epic EMR is more remarkable for larger hospitals as they will often opt for a locally hosted license purchase. However, even if they opt for a monthly subscription, the monthly fee will be many times greater than a small practice. And there are three reasons behind this phenomenon;
- Larger practices, especially hospitals, require a more extensive feature set, custom charts, and workflows for different specialties.
- The number of providers and clinical staff increases as the size of the practice increases. Epic EMR’s cost per month is dependent on the number of providers accessing the program.
- A more significant number of patients will require more bandwidth from your internet connection, increasing internet costs. Moreover, it will also result in more insurance claims being scrubbed, and Epic’s clearinghouse takes a percentage of your revenue, so as revenue increases, so does Epic EMR’s cut.
Features and Specialty
The feature set you require, and your specialty come hand in hand as your practice’s specialty will dictate the features you need. For example, epic EMR offers its EHR, practice management, and revenue cycle management as different modules. You can opt for separately or as a combination of two or all three at once.
Moreover, you can also choose not to pay for specific features that are of no use to your practice. As a result, the feature set you use will impact Epic EMR cost, and this is a good thing as you won’t have to pay for any additional features.
Final Words
As with most modern top EMR systems, Epic EMR costs will depend on a variety of factors. No one factor will alone decide the final cost. Instead, their combination will dictate what Epic EMR costs you.
With that said, remember not to take an exact figure you see on the internet too seriously. As you cant be sure of what that practice requires in terms of features, you cant be sure of its size and specialty.
We would highly encourage you to get a quote for Epic EMR now that you’re aware of the factors that will dictate that quote, as Epic EMR is one of the best EMR systems available on the market today. User reviews have mostly been positive, and the Epic EMR has no program-breaking bugs. Epic EMR demos are readily available, and they are easy to follow and intuitive in nature.