Ohio medical society pushes doctor-friendly EMR pacts

A program will recognize companies that adopt simplified contract language.

By Dave Hansen, AMNews staff. Nov. 26, 2007.

Washington -- The Ohio State Medical Assn. plans to launch a campaign on Jan. 1 recognizing electronic medical record vendors that use language vetted by the association for simplicity.

"Doctors were concerned one of the barriers to adopting EMRs was the whole contracting process. Small practices don't have access to anyone who can help them pick one," said OSMA Senior Director Carol Wright Mullinax. "So we make vendor contracts more physician friendly."

OSMA is concerned that physicians unwittingly could sign contracts with flaws, such as the IT company not being required to pay refunds if implementation fails, said association spokesman David Owens. The Coker Group, a national medical consulting firm based in Alpharetta, Ga., devised the proposed contract language for the OSMA.

To qualify for the Standards of Excellence designation, a vendor would have to amend its contracts with an approved list of provisions written to "guarantee that physician rights are protected in the contracting process," explained the OSMA.

The Coker Group assembled the proposed list based on provisions that clients found common and important, said Senior Consultant Sue Hertlein. "These are terms we deal with on a weekly basis," she said.