Home Forums Updox Overcharges - Check Your Credit Card

Did I miss an announcement that Updox was raising prices again?

After receiving my monthly closing statement 6/27/2018 for the usual $50.00 / 1st 500 pages plus $10 fax bundle next 500 pages plus $0.04 per page thereafter, I stopped receiving the prior usual monthly eMail notices from Updox. As I do every month, one business day before my Updox closing statement on the 27th of each month, on 7/26/2018 and 8/24/2018 I opened the billing tab on Updox's Amazing Charts built in user interface, saw that I went over the break point of 750 faxes for which is it cheaper to add a fax bundle (but under 1250 faxes, the price break point for two fax bundles) , and added a fax bundle both months. I never received a July statement or billing notice from Updox. In late August my credit card statement showed Updox ignored my fax bundle, charged me $60.00 instead of $50.00 for the first 500 faxes and then $0.04 per page thereafter for $13.80 for the faxes above 500 instead of $10.00 for a 500 fax bundle. Today I received a differently formatted eMail invoice again overcharging me for my service. This time it appears I have been charged $60.00 instead of $50.00 for the first 500 pages, and my fax bundle once again ignored with a per fax penalty of $21.44 (not quite $0.04 x 562pages = $22.48) instead of $10 for the next 500 faxes and $2.48 for the remaining 62 faxes over 1000.

I sent several requests to Updox support without responses.

Has anyone else been affected?

Is updox HIPPA compliant?

SoCalFP those are definitely not the rates I was quoted last month. I spoke to an Updox rep and was quoted a rate of $99 per month.
$50 sounds more reasonable. Yes, I wanted just the faxing capability.
Allison

Yes, i have same problem of overcharging. Also they no longer itemized my bill which is even more suspect.

Updox took a few days to reply and several replies to partially explain as below 9/5/2018, and several transactions to refund, recharge in error, and finally refund again my credit card.

"Now, regarding the overages you've seen the last few months... What is happening is that our new billing system isn't reading back into your Updox bundle adjustments which is why you've been charged extra. This will not be fixed for another 3-4 weeks based on where it sits in our work sprints. "

I am supposed to contact them every time I add a fax bundle to save on charges until they get their software working again.
I got no reply at all as to why I am no longer receiving itemized lists of faxes or if they ever intend to restore this service again, so it appears we just have to trust them that the charges they post are substantiated.

I presume so as it is offered as a additional interfaced service by AmazingCharts which is a certified EMR.

I enrolled when it was first offered years ago (2012Jan). At that time the Patient Portal function was free and required to meet Meaningful Use, and faxing was offered as an additional monthly fee, initially $35, then ~2013Jan $40, then sometime between 2015Dec and 2016May $50 for the first 500 faxed pages in or out, with the ability to add additional "fax bundles" of 500 page increments for $10 ($0.02 per page), or more expensively, $0.04 per page if you don't add a fax bundle. Every month one day before I am billed, I log on and check my page count, and if it is over the breakeven point of 750 pages, I add a fax bundle, which I then remove one day after my bill. Prior to Updox I had a hardcopy fax machine with all the attendant problems of a dedicated phone line for faxes returning busy signals for incoming or outgoing faxes, the expense of supplies and paper, and having to import hardcopies manually by scanner. Then I had an internet fax service, but originally Updox was cheaper than my internet fax service provider, and added the capability to interface with the EMR patient list, edit faxes (fill in forms), and provided the required portal, so I switched to Updox. $99/month sounds like a lot, that would be 5 additional fax bundles for a total of 3000 pages a month, which would be unmanageable to review. We NEVER give out our fax number to anyone except our specialist consultants - everyone else can spend the postage to US Mail us what they want us to see, most of which is spam. Inevitably, undesireable senders find our fax, but updox has a feature allowing us to block incoming numbers, although senders of spam seem to get around this with innumerable sending numbers. We are particularly careful to never give our fax number to pharmacies and their robo refill fax generators, although this has diminished with e prescribing. We occasionally save a few pennies by using Updox's free direct email, but our local specialist colleagues have been slow to implement direct email in their EMRs. We also save when possible by sending long faxes as a single page referencing a secure Updox website from which the recipient may download the entire fax which costs us only one page, although most recipients have to be held by the hand and walked through this, and Updox deletes these faxes after 48 hours, so we often have to upload it several times before the recipient downloads it, but when insurer ask for the entire several hundred page chart and doesn't have a secure upload website of their own, this is how we send them.

Mike, You are awesome. Your explanation gave me some answers and then several questions to ask another company that we are in talks with in regards to efax. Charter service and a fax machine just do not work. What ever happened to a good ole fashioned generic telephone line hooked to a fax machine. I do not remember having the problems that I have now. I could fax over 100 pages of records at a time (not really) and not have any problems. God how I miss paper charts and good ole phone lines not connected to any internet. Showing my age.
My doc would go back to paper charts but, we have some sweet Medicare patients.
Thanks again for all of the information that you put out here.
Alley

Just got my 18SEP2018 updox invoice.
I was overcharged by updox.
did not get my 500 included faxes so bill was $20 higher than should have been. I will contact updox support.

Just got by Nov 18 2018 bill from updox. The base fee has gone up from $50 to $131. Total bill now $212. Anybody else get such an increase?

Yes, Ken, ours did too.

So here is the email we got from Updox on 10/31:
"Dear Updox Customer,

This is a follow up to an email we sent you on Oct. 1, 2018.

Effective Thursday, Nov. 1, 2018, your Updox services will become unlimited. You will notice a 15% increase in your monthly base fee that was calculated based on an average of your total billed amount for the last three bills (inclusive of base fee and usage).

This month?s bill is the last statement you will receive from us with a line item for overages. Any overages shown on this statement reflect October usage. Going forward, your bill will show a single, predictable price point for unlimited usage giving you an easier, more convenient way to budget and plan for 2019.

If you have any questions, please reach out to your Updox Customer Success Manager, call us at 866-MYUPDOX, ext. 2, or contact us via live chat.

Thank you,

Jason Barr, Vice President of Sales and Customer Success"


Our bill last month was $80. This month it is $186.
My math skills may be a little rusty, but I think that is more than a 15% increase.
Once I get some information from Updox, I will report back here.

Same here. 56% increase. They came back and said a mistake and will be issuing a credit. Something is very wrong with their billing. Another thing to keep an eye out for. Wish it was integrated (built and supported) by the same company as the EHR so one point of contact. I have begun looking at my options across the board. I wonder how please AC will be to lose customers over an outside company product and billings.

We supposedly now have "unlimited" faxing.
Monthly charges have been $200-300, not the bargain it used to be, but of course we get innumerable core dumps from many EMR's in hospitals and specialty offices.

There is no reason for all that garbage from EMR's -- they could just as easily program a coherent summary note like we used to get.

The question is, will it really save us any money
The other question is, why is Updox so slow and buggy most of the time now -- it used to be really responsive. They must have some serious growing pains.

I did not see any memo about unlimited faxing, but that makes sense.

I guess this months bill has the overages from last month with the future flat charge for next month. [notice was on the bill but on the second page/off the screen so didn't notice it]

I miss the days when Tobin, the lead developer, fixed things quickly. It's like verizon has taken over updox, and is starting to raise rates as much as market will bear.

Updox reply:
"We had a price increase beginning November 1st, of 15% based on the average of your July 2018 through September 2018 bills. Your average was $83. With 15% on top of that, your bill will be $96.
Your 11/07/18 invoice is $186 because it includes the fax overages ($30) and provider fee ($60) from October 2018, along with your new charge for November of $96. Going forward, your bill will be $96. There will be no overages because you now have unlimited faxing."

Updox got the bill right for me this month (Dec 2018). $131 flat rate. I use about 2000-3000 fax pages a month.