Client Data Toolkit: Purchasing

Purchasing: How to Estimate the Cost of Your System

Trying to find out the actual price of what an EHR system will cost can be an exercise in patience and persistence. To begin with, there are many ways that vendors price their EHR products. The user licenses may be priced per billing provider, per provider FTE equivalent, per named user, per concurrent user, or based on a perentage of your organizational operating budget.

The process usually begins with a demo. Many vendors want to show you a thirty to sixty minute demo of the product before they will discuss system pricing.

EHR Incentives – The Stimulus Money

The U.S. government has made incentive money available for health care organizations to implement electronic health records. All of these products have a robust set of features and are on track to have their products certified by ONC. Behavioral healthcare providers must use an ONC(link is external) certified EHR to qualify for Medicaid and Medicare Meaningful Use incentive payments. ONC is the Office of the National Coordinator for Health Information Technology.

• You must be able to demonstrate Meaningful Use(link is external) of an EHR system.
• Incentive payments are not made to practices but to individual eligible professionals(link is external) (EPs).
• For more information about the Medicare and Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, please visit http://www.cms.gov/EHRIncentivePrograms(link is external)

How to Write a Request For Proposal (RFP)

• The RFP Process: An Overview(link is external) – TechSoup Article
• Writing an RFP(link is external) – Article from RFP Evaluation Centers, Inc.
• The RFP: Writing One and Responding to One(link is external) – Article by Julia Rutherford Silvers
• Beyond the Template: Writing an RFP That Works(link is external) – Article from SourcingMag.com
• Ask the Right Questions to Develop Your RFP(link is external) – TechSoup Article. Four worksheets designed to help you develop an RFP for a new database, Web site, and network.
• Nine Tips for Navigating the RFP Research Phase(link is external) – TechSoup Article. Conduct effective research and find a technology vendor without wasting weeks of valuable time.
• Put it in Writing: What Do You Need from a Provider?(link is external) – TechSoup Stock connects nonprofits and public libraries with donated and discounted technology products.

Grants and Grant Writing
How to Fund Your Client Data Management System

There are many funding sources available for health and technology projects. The list below will give you a starting point. In addition, you can do an internet search on the following words and phrases. Put the phrase in quotation marks for better search results.

• EHR
• ERM
• Electronic Health Records
• Electronic Medical Records
• Health Information Technology

Instructions for Writing a Grant

• Basic Elements of Grant Writing(link is external) – The Corporation for Public Broadcasting provides an easy guide to the basic elements of grant writing.
• Grant Proposals(link is external) – A comprehensive site on proposal writing. Includes an overview, inquiry and cover letters, standard components of a proposal, a sample proposal, advice from funders, and more. Includes an excellent section on researching funding opportunities.
• Position Yourself to Write a Superior Technology Proposal(link is external) – TechSoup Stock connects nonprofits and public libraries with donated and discounted technology products. Especially in difficult economic times, as foundation portfolios shrink.
• Ten Tips for Funding Technology(link is external) – Budget technology expenses as shared costs, not overhead: One of the biggest mistakes people often make when preparing technology grant proposals is to simply lump technology.
• Beyond the Case Statement: Your Grant Proposal(link is external) – The core of the proposal is your case statement (see Writing a Winning Grant Proposal, “Position Yourself to Write a Superior Technology Proposal, and “Building a Great Case Statement.
• Development Office Technology Planning(link is external) – Your technology plan should focus on three primary areas: decision support, communication, and workflow. Your communications plan must be carefully integrated with your information.

Publications on Technology Funding

• Technology Grant News(link is external) – A new resource, published four times a year, which identifies public and private sector funding sources in the technology arena.
• Technology Grant News: Everything Technology(link is external). – Book published annually.
• HIMSS Grants Advantage(link is external) – Healthcare Healthcare Information and Management Systems Society. Information on funding healthcare technology. Paid subscription required.
• The Quiet Revolution in Nonprofit Capacity Support(link is external) – 2003. Jonathan Peizer, chief technology officer and former director of the Open Society Institute’s Internet Program. He is a co-founder of Aspiration(link is external) and also the developer of Capaciteria(link is external), a peer-reviewed capacity resource for nonprofits.
• How Technology is Funded: The Basics(link is external) – Excerpt from The Accidental Techie by Sue Bennett.

Funding Resources 

• U.S. Federal Government Grants Portal(link is external)
  – Health Resources and Services Administration(link is external)
  – Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration(link is external)
• Funding Opportunities(link is external) – Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
• Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality(link is external) – Healthcare IT funding opportunities to create safer and more quality care in ambulatory settings and transitions of care. Grants include a Career Development and Dissertation Research Grant; Small Research Grant to Improve Healthcare Quality through Health IT; Exploratory and Developmental Grant to Improve Health Care Quality through Health IT; and Utilizing Health IT to Improve Health Care Quality Grant.
• Verizon Foundation(link is external) – The foundation has an interest in supporting health and technology projects.

Technology Donations and Discounts

Many organizations give substantial discounts to nonprofits for hardware and software. It is worth exploring these options to see if you are eligible.

• TechSoup(link is external) has an online product donation service that connects nonprofits with technology product donations from more than twenty-five leading corporate and nonprofit technology partners. Eligible nonprofits can purchase Microsoft Office, Windows, Windows Server, and Norton AntiVirus at up to 90 percent off the retail cost. A nominal administrative fee is applied to each product. Learn more at A Quick Guide to Discounted Software Programs.(link is external)
• Good 360(link is external) (Formerly Gifts in Kind) provides software donations from Adobe, Autodesk, Microsoft, Intuit, Lotus, PowerQuest and Symantec (cost is around $30). Some donations require that you join Gifts in Kind ($125 per year) while others require no membership (i.e. Adobe).
• Consistent Computer Bargains, Inc.(link is external) provides discounts on many software titles to nonprofit organizations. Consistent Computer Bargains works with several software publishers including Adobe, Corel, Lotus, Macromedia, McAfee, Microsoft. CCB has also secured special pricing with Acer, IBM, and HP for hardware discounts.

Microsoft software donations(link is external) are made in response to the requests of individual nonprofits to meet their organizational needs. The process for requesting a software donation depends on the location of your organization. Be sure to check the most current Microsoft Eligibility Requirements.

• TechSoup – Microsoft Program(link is external) – All Microsoft software donation requests within the United States and Canada are handled by the Microsoft nonprofit partner TechSoup.(link is external) There is no membership fee for access to TechSoup, but a small administrative fee from TechSoup will apply to each order to help offset the organization’s costs.
• Microsoft Open License Charity Program(link is external) – For nonprofit organizations that do not meet the Microsoft or TechSoup eligibility guidelines and for organizations that need to request additional software. This program enables nonprofit organizations to purchase Microsoft software and licenses at a substantially reduced cost; it is available in several countries worldwide.

Check out the next section of the toolkit: Client Data Toolkit: Customizing