I estimate about $100 a month for AWS to host OpenEMR, but I can knock that down to $40 a month if I pay 3 years in advance. What about other perhaps hidden costs associated with trying to do it all yourself? I’ll need to sign up with a clearinghouse for billing and insurance validation? Do they typically charge per month per provider? How much will it costs to integrate labs? What about prescriptions? Is there anything I am forgetting?
I would appreciate suggestions for low-cost solutions to all of these things.
The cost to host a VM in the cloud should not be $100 a month.
It cost me about $14 a month to host a OpenEMR. There is about $10 a year for domain name. $10 a month for Eligibility and Benefits + $45 a month to submit claims (OfficeAlly)
Thank you for your info. I will probably go with Office Ally. Does anyone have any information about integrating labs into OpenEMR? From what I read, each lab will charge a large one-time fee, and then have a monthly fee as well.
Labs don’t cost, initial integration with quest labs is free (unless something changed) but can take weeks / months to set up unless they improved.
Prescriptions - many use the Weno module and you can check its website. For one provider there’s an initial fee then ~ 3$ / month or something like that.
You don’t really need Clearing house unless it is for convenience since major payors provide online provider portals for billing submission, clearinghouse, preauth, etc.
As for other questions - depends on how IT-literate you are and which addon services you need. If you know how to setup openemr on a local web server or via docker, you only need to buy a domain name (about $10 a year) and then direct it to your home/business web server. This way, you save money, avoid PHI living in the cloud (AWS), don’t need to sign business associate agreements, and so on.
If you don’t want to do it yourself and wish someone to set basic openemr for you (no addons since other entities provide you help with that) remotely (unless you are located in Midwest and nearby), we can help with that but you will need to provide remote access to computer (we can help with that too). If you need a complete website designed for your clinic including appointment scheduler (patients can make appointments on the website), access to patient portal, etc, we can also help you with that.
Of note, you will need to provide complete access to your web server to set up quest labs regardless. I will provide you an estimate for the service, but can assure you’ll be saving compared to $40 a month and your and your patients’ data won’t be in the cloud but rather on your own server. If interested, message me directly. Otherwise, good luck.
Hi, I’d love to talk with you. I have a lab module that connects to the DORN network. We are ready to bring on a willing beta client. The module works with DORN and has hundreds of labs available one of which is Labcorp. If your interested and have the time and energy to help we’d love to work with you.
I also run a clearinghouse that connects to openEMR via our module as well. We are about the same price as the competitors and offer much more support.
Some say AWS is cheaper but it is diffecult for me to tell. For my specific use case, I don’t believe the price differences (GCP vs AWS) would be significant enough to justify picking one over the other. Since I already have Google Workspace, I decided to stick with Google Cloud Platform for integration benefits.
I am not a dev, but in our support work the devs say GCP is less expensive because it takes less time and is faster and easier to work with when installing and supporting. And since time = $$, less time = less $$.
I am still working through the ICD codes as well as tariff codes for South Africa. I think there is a cost here though I am not sure. I notice that in South Africa, NAPPI SEP codes have a cost. I need to be registered with a clearing house like Medikredit to get the SEP codes (Medikredit only provides a prosthetics NAPPI code list to the public and the rest are paid lists). I guess the cost of the list is included with the subscription to the clearinghouse service in South Africa.
Other costs seem to be the time you need to invest in order to complete the DIY. In my case, I need to add ICD10 codes, etc
I encountered this before and got the following caveats:
a) South Africa has its own particular ICD-10 subset. So a default install wont help.
b) South Africa also has particular tariff codes. I need to contact the medical aid providers for help.
c) The external data load doesn’t consider the South African NAPPI codes and it seems to be a paid item (or the doctor needs to be subscribed to a switching house plan at least).
So these are the costs we face in South Africa. I am just checking how to approach these hurdles without additional costs.
PS: Thanks again, your link also confirms something I discovered late: no codes are preloaded.
