10 hidden costs of switching EHRs, and how to budget for them

What does EMR software actually cost?

Several of the costs above won't appear on a vendor's price sheet, and the ones that do are hard to compare.

Software Advice's free EMR software pricing guide lays out common pricing models and ranges, plus the upfront, subscription and hidden costs to ask about, a useful benchmark before you issue a request for proposals.

The Medical Group Management Association's guidance on EHR requests for proposals tells practices to make vendors break out upfront costs (licensing, implementation, training and data migration), ongoing costs (support, maintenance, subscriptions and upgrades) and third-party integrations, and to put caps on annual price increases in writing.

The same guidance suggests allowing six to 12 months to evaluate systems and three to six months or more to implement one. In a survey of 305 family physicians whose practices had changed EHRs, 81% called the time investment a moderate or major challenge.