Roy,
Yes thank-you very much. But I was noticing that the last time I looked at OA, they didn't have a lot of coverage with our east coast carriers. We in particular are very concerned about our local CNY BC/BS which is Excellus, who unfortunately control over 50% of our market up here. Let's hear it for freemarkets and no monopolies.... So I decided to pass them by because they seemed to be more of a west coast kind of clearinghouse. Has this changed or have they indicated to you that they will be beefing up their east coast coverage?
Also, was there any talk of allowing users to own a single copy of the software so that they could always have access to their own old data. These web only programs really frighten me and I feel they should scare everyone else. Once on their taxi meter they've got you by the throat to put it mildly. Even if you switch to another program, you've got to keep paying them, possilby for years just to access your own data. This is just wrong.
As I've said in other threads... When you buy a copy of Word, Excel or even non MS software like QuickBooks, Medisoft, Altapoint and the rest which are other database programs; it's your program and you can always use it to access what you created on it. It makes the old compatiblity issue sort of moot. As long as you have the OS and the old program that created our data, then you can always use that program and our old data as an archive for old charts or billing or what have you. Without such things you are at the ASP vendor's mercy, they've got you! That is why many of these ASP's can boast over a 90% retention rate; where you gonna go once they've got you? How are you going to get out clean with your charts or billing?
Although we were not pleased with our past EMR vendor ChartWare; especially with their awful corporate attitude and lack of support that expected all thier users to be high end techies like Dr Vinny, at least we still own a copy of that program and can always access and re-print the charts that Nancy created that first year or so that we used it as our charting system. Now I've got that old service pack 1 copy of XP Pro Tablet, ChartWare and that old data on her old laptop, and we can always access it and use it as we see fit. Anything less is totally unacceptable as far as I'm concerned and I feel that this should be all offices and providers line in the sand. This is our data, our patients' charts and records, and I feel we owe it to oursleves and our patients to protect it from this form of hostage taking and abuse. Why I feel that this form of hostage taking should be out lawed. Every office is entitled to a single user license so that they can always use their old data even if there is a falling out in the future. "It's ten o'clock, do you know where your data is????"
Paul
