AAFP offers members a technology price break

The deal gives doctors discounts of up to 50% on EMR software and computer hardware.

By Tyler Chin, AMNews staff. Dec. 22/29, 2003.

The American Academy of Family Physicians has negotiated an agreement under which its 94,000 members can buy electronic medical records software and computer hardware at substantial discounts from several technology vendors.

The initiative, called Partners for Patients, is designed to help doctors overcome "the biggest roadblock" preventing them from implementing EMR systems, which is cost, said AAFP President Michael Fleming, MD.

Depending on the product and the size of a physician practice, seven companies -- A4Health Systems, GE Medical Systems Information Technologies, MedPlexus Inc, NextGen Healthcare Information Systems Inc., Physician Micro Systems Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co., and Welch-Allyn Inc. -- have agreed to offer AAFP members discounts of 15% to 50%.

The medical society launched its initiative because it wants to encourage doctors to adopt EMRs to improve patient safety and patient care, said David Kibbe, MD, director of the AAFP's Center for Health Information Technology.

So far fewer than 10% of the medical society's members use EMRs. However, thousands have told the society that they are interested in implementing them but couldn't afford the technology's startup costs, which typically range from $25,000 to $50,000 per physician, he said.