Benefits of cloud-based health IT systems

Health IT adoption continues to grow at a rapid rate but with that, the costs are on their way up too. A recent data from the Medical Group Management Association (MGMA), medical practices’ annual expenditures for every full-time physician on IT costs have increased from $15,211 in 2008 to $19,439 in 2012, showing an increase of 27.8%.
However, health IT is largely benefiting from the power of cloud to move beyond client-based technologies. Thankfully, cloud-based EHR, practice management and medical billing services are helping physicians mitigate the rising costs of health IT in these ways.

Low start-up costs
Instead of spending a huge sum of money up-front on expensive hardware or software in the server-based model, the cloud-based solutions require virtually no start-up costs because of their ability to use any current system with a browser and a working internet connection.

No IT staff required
With the server-based model, hardware and software are housed in your practice, requiring you to hire an in-house IT person or at least have an IT contractor whenever you develop a problem. As the case with any other industry, IT problems are common and you would be spending a lot on troubleshooting the problems whenever there are any.

On the other hand, cloud-based software is entirely managed by your health IT vendor and you don’t have to worry about repair costs in case there is any problem. Your data also stays safe because it is on the cloud and the vendors take care of repairs.

Free upgrades
Unlike server-based models, who can charge you hundreds of thousands of dollars in case of an update, most of the cloud-based health It vendors take care of updates and upgrades automatically. The completely integrated cloud-based solutions allow for updates across the network without disrupting your workflow.


Want to learn more ways to save your practice money? Read the “6 Simple Steps to Improve Practice Revenues” whitepaper.

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