Electronic Health Records For Dummies

Signing your life away

Ready the trumpets and pour the champagne. If all has gone to plan, you’ve negotiated contract terms that benefit your practice most and reached an amicable compromise on points that aren’t 100 percent in your favor. You can finally trade in your red pen for that nice, fancy Cross or Mont Blanc pen and sign that contract!

Flying with the legal eagles

Hopefully, your practice has a lawyer on retainer to handle issues of malpractice and more general legal concerns. If so, great, because you will probably want a legal representative to review the contract to make sure you are covered in case liability or compliance issues pop up.

If you don’t have permanent counsel on retainer or your attorney is not well-versed in healthcare IT issues, then contact your REC, your professional society, an EHR consultant, or a software procurement professional who speaks the healthcare IT language. Because IT-related contracts can be complicated, especially for people who don’t normally deal in technology, you might miss some of the finer points of the terms you’re negotiating. Having a lawyer is a great step toward getting the most favorable terms for your practice. And employing an attorney who specializes in technology negotiations so you can garner the best terms is a bonus. A lawyer adds to your final list of costs, but might pay for himself by getting you the best deals. You want terms that you can live with for the long term, so lawyer up if you have the funds. Contact ...