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Practice Fusion

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mbloom:
I am just curious about WHY this product is absolutely free. As a biller it concerns me because it belongs to Kareo- who not only sells a billing component but offers billing service as well. With EMR becoming a requirement, I just wonder if there is a catch?? Any thoughts???  I saw a previous post about these companies wanting to "partner" to get you to sell their product....but again- thats not the case here because it is free..

RichardP:
Practice Fusion had a partnership with Kareo - which has since been dissolved.  Kareo has their own EMR now.  Kareo has never "owned" PF.

If you use the "free" version of PF, you get advertising presented to you at specific intervals.  If you want to avoid the advertising, you must pay a small fee.  (Edit:  Or use Mozilla Firefox with adblock.)

As is the case with most folks who start businesses on a national scale, I'm sure the plan is to grow the user base to a certain size and then sell the business for a bazillion bucks.  It's the American way.

gurumedbill:
Richard is exactly right that Kareo has never owned Practice Fusion but they used to have a good relationship with a sub par interface to each other.  The relationship has since taken a turn for the worse and they are no longer official partners.
Why they are free is pretty simple and I think Richard is pretty accurate.  I also think they will begin to charge in the future because they will be able to.  Let's say they have 200,000 providers (which will probably happen in the next several months or year) and they say we are going to start charging $25 a month per provider.  That is an extra 5 million dollars a month.  Almost no one will leave for only $25 a month.  The headache to learn a new software and get their data out of Practice Fusion would not be worth leaving.  If Practice Fusion doesn't do this then whoever they end up selling to will. 

tallmanusa:
PF is free and also very good. Most people who use it like it, better than some paid EMR.
They have competition, office ally charges a very small fee for EMR, and free PM.
I see no reason why anyone should pay for EMR.
I don't think PF will be charging anyone. The major competition is from Kareo, Nuesoft, AdvancedMD, Carecloud, ECW and dozens of others who give out free EMR and PM for doing billing at 4% or less. Of course they send all the work offshore.
Try getting a new client these days, see who you are competing with.

mbloom:
Thanks guys!!

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