EHRs

Small- and medium-sized practices in Georgia and South Carolina that are looking to take the plunge into electronic health records could be in luck.

A San Antonio-based EHR provider is offering grants that would cover up to half of practices’ monthly software support and maintenance costs.

The technology company, Sevocity, pledges to grant $100,000 to several Georgia and South Carolina small- and medium-sized practices that sign one-year contracts for its EHR system, according to Matt Hallman, a regional account manager with the company. The company plans to award grants totaling $50,000 in each state.

Sevocity charges a monthly fee of $450 to $525 per physician, depending on contract length, for support, maintenance, and software upgrades to its EHR system. The grants are designed to cover 50 percent of monthly fees for the first year of the contract, Hallman said. So, if a practice is paying $525 each month for each physician, the grant would equal $3,150 per physician for the year.

The grants are being offered on a first-come, first-served basis, Hallman said.

In addition to the monthly fees, Sevocity charges an $800 per-physician startup fee, according to its website. The grants do not cover any of the startup fees.

The grants are designed to “help get things going” for Hallman, who recently started working with the company and is responsible for sales in Georgia and South Carolina, he said. The grants are available to the “first few” practices that sign up in each state until the $50,000 figure is reached.

Hallman defines small- and medium-sized practices as those that employ 10 doctors or fewer.

The company recently announced a similar grant program in Florida to coincide with its hiring of a sales manager for that state. There has been “significant interest” in the Florida promotion so far, Hallman said.

Sevocity plans to launch the grant promotion in other states, but Hallman said the additional states and timing haven’t been decided.

The company’s EHR is based on the application service provider model, in which the software is hosted on Sevocity’s servers and accessed by physicians via the Internet. Sevocity also sells practice management software.