6 Top-Rated Affordable EMR Software
Medical practitioners have to prioritize quality patient care over administrative burdens, including appointment scheduling and management, patient record keeping, and billing. While some businesses often hire people to handle processes, small medical practice owners might not find this a viable option.
Fortunately, you can invest in affordable electronic medical records (EMR software) that helps with patient records management and charting without disrupting your finances.
To help you choose the right tool, we highlight the top six affordable electronic medical records software options for efficient practice management, based on verified user reviews and pricing found on vendor websites. Per our research, we’ve considered products with base plans priced less than $76.49 per month as affordable software and arranged them in ascending order of their prices.
All products mentioned in this article are dedicated electronic medical records (EMR) software that offer the following core features: charting and patient records management.
What is a base software plan?
A base plan is the most affordable pricing tier offered by a software provider. Besides having the lowest price, base plans provide access to all core software features. However, they may have limitations compared to higher-tier plans in terms of available functionality, storage capacity, number of user seats, support options, etc.
We selected products for this article based on their average ratings between February 2022 - February 2024, which may differ from their current overall average ratings.
1. Carepatron
Carepatron is an electronic health record (EHR) platform that helps medical practitioners manage patient bookings and run scheduling, billing, and patient management. The software provides telehealth features, enabling practitioners to conduct virtual consultations securely. This feature is especially beneficial for expanding reach and providing continuous care to patients who cannot visit the clinic physically. Carepatron also offers customizable templates for notes and forms, which practitioners can use to collect patients’ information.
Carepatron’s base plan supports unlimited storage, group video chat, SMS reminders, and a 99% guaranteed uptime service level agreement (SLA). Upgrading to the premium plan will get you advanced permissions, free client data import, and a dedicated success manager for support.
Base plan features*:
Clinical notes: Use predefined templates to maintain clinical record accuracy, minimize charting errors, and enhance the quality of patient documentation.
SMS reminders: Automate the process of sending appointment reminders to patients. This reduces the administrative burden on staff and ensures patients are constantly reminded of upcoming appointments.
Group video chat: Set up a group video meeting, send out invites to participants via email or SMS, and manage RSVPs.
Starting price: | $12 per user per month |
Cost to upgrade: | $19 per user per month |
Billing cycle: | Annual |
Customer support options: | Chat, emails, help center, and FAQs |
Who should consider Carepatron?
Medical practitioners with large volumes of client data can benefit from Carepatron's unlimited storage feature. This will help them organize and store their client data and retrieve crucial information seamlessly. The software also offers a guaranteed uptime SLA, ensuring there’s no downtime and allowing users to save crucial information on the cloud.
2. My Best Practice
My Best Practice is an EMR system that supports clinicians using evidence-based treatments and improves patient care. The EMR system offers a Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) compliant and secure patient dashboard. You can use the dashboard to create clinical notes and treatment plans and share them with patients via a patient portal. My Best Practice also lets you run custom surveys to gather patient feedback.
My Best Practice comes with a single plan, including clinical notes, treatment plans, a client portal, built-in client messaging, appointment reminders, intake forms, online surveys, and integrated payment. You can purchase premium add-ons, which include telehealth, e-scripts, and in-network and out-of-network insurance billing.
Base plan features*:
Intake forms: Customize patient intake forms to add, remove, or modify fields and gather patient information, such as medical history, insurance, and consent details. This flexibility ensures the forms remain relevant and comprehensive.
Custom surveys: Design surveys with specific questions relevant to your practice or research objectives. This customization ensures the surveys gather precise and valuable data from patients.
Client portal/messaging: Give your patients access to a client portal to help them complete intake questionnaires, sign consent forms, share files related to their medical history, and send messages to their doctor during emergencies.
Starting price: | $39 per user per month |
Cost to upgrade: | $19 per additional user per month |
Billing cycle: | Monthly |
Customer support options: | Chat, emails, help center, and FAQs |
Who should consider My Best Practice?
Medical practitioners who need to create custom surveys to gather patient feedback and improve their patient care can opt for My Best Practice. The platform supports multilingual intake forms that can benefit practitioners with global clients from different regional backgrounds.
3. TheraPlatform
TheraPlatform is an EHR and teletherapy platform that helps medical practitioners engage their clients through online consulting and e-therapy. The software includes video conferencing functionality that lets you facilitate interactive sessions with clients. TheraPlatform also provides a dashboard to submit digital insurance claims on behalf of patients. Once submitted, you can use the records to ensure accuracy during tax season. The software also offers digital forms and file cabinets to store client data.
TheraPlatform’s base plan includes the ability to manage unlimited clients, scheduling, documentation, and billing. Upgrading to a premium plan gets you automated billing, unlimited telehealth, insurance billing, provider reports, and interactive therapy apps as part of the TheraPlatform suite.
Base plan features*:
Claims management: Scrub, submit, match, and post payments with a built-in claims management tool. The software also provides built-in report templates you can use during claims submission and supports batch processing, enabling you to submit multiple claims at once.
Payment tracking: Track aging and overdue invoices and automate sending email reminders to patients when their invoices are due. You can customize the frequency and timing of your payment reminders and generate invoices on a set schedule.
Superbills: Provide clients with detailed medical billing information necessary for insurance reimbursements. This feature is integrated into the platform, ensuring that all necessary information is pulled directly from the client’s records.
Starting price: | $39 per user per month |
Cost to upgrade: | $69 per user per month |
Billing cycle: | Monthly |
Customer support options: | Chat, emails, help center, and FAQs |
Who should consider TheraPlatform?
Medical practitioners and therapists can submit insurance e-claims directly through TheraPlatform. This feature eliminates the need for paper claims and manual submission processes. The practice management software supports batch processing, allowing therapists to submit multiple claims at once. This is particularly useful for practices with a high volume of clients and claims.
4. EHR 24/7
EHR 24/7 by Office Ally is an EHR platform designed to help medical practitioners simplify patient intake and patient management. The software offers automated text, call, and email reminders to reduce no-shows. EHR 24/7 can also interface with various laboratory information systems (LIS) to transmit lab orders and receive results electronically. Once processed, lab results are automatically sent back to the EHR, ensuring the healthcare provider gets timely access to critical patient information.
EHR 24/7 offers clinical charting, lab and health information exchange (HIE) interfacing, document management, and configurable SOAP notes with its base plan. You can purchase add-ons that include electronic prescribing, patient reminders, secure messaging, and patient health portal.
Base plan features*:
HIE interfacing: Interfaces with HIE networks to facilitate the secure and efficient exchange of patient health information (PHI) between healthcare organizations. Automating the exchange of information reduces administrative burden, speeding turnaround times for lab results.
Configurable SOAP notes: Allows you to design templates with sections for subjective information (patient-reported symptoms and history), objective data (vital signs, physical examination findings), assessment (diagnoses, impressions), and plan (treatment plan, follow-up actions).
Document management: Allows healthcare providers to manage all aspects of patient records electronically, including demographics, medical history, progress notes, and treatment plans.
Starting price: | $39.95 per user per month |
Cost to upgrade: | Available upon request from the vendor |
Billing cycle: | Monthly |
Customer support options: | Chat, emails, help center, and FAQs |
Who should consider EHR 24/7?
EHR 24/7 enables healthcare providers to create SOAP note templates that align with their specialty, patient population, and practice workflows. This flexibility allows various practitioners to devise sections based on their needs. For instance, dermatologists may include sections for skin assessments and treatments, or cardiologists might focus on cardiac symptoms and diagnostic tests.
Pro tip
Select a tool that supports real-time chat, allowing you to instantly communicate with patients during online sessions. This immediate communication improves medical diagnosis by enabling patients to describe their problems during live consultations.
5. Juvonno
Juvonno is an EMR solution that helps with patient appointment booking, charting, scheduling, and communication. The software offers built-in appointment booking and manages multiple clinic schedules from a single dashboard. Juvonno also features in-app text, email, and chat functionality. To improve patient support, you can enable two-way text messaging with clients. Also, sharing links to helpful resources before or after appointments will enhance operational efficiency.
Juvonno’s base plan includes scheduling features, unlimited data storage, appointment reminders, practitioner tools, pre-built charts, invoicing, receipt, integrated payment, and 1:1 telehealth appointments. The premium plan gets you a patient portal, insurance billing, customizable charts and intake forms, and multi-clinic management.
Base plan features*:
Subscriptions and memberships: Automate subscription billing processes, and set up recurring payments for patients’ subscribed services and treatments. You can create customizable subscription plans tailored to different patient needs or treatment packages. This flexibility allows for tiered pricing and service offerings for healthcare professionals.
Pre-built charts: Use pre-built standardized chart templates tailored to different medical specialties (e.g., chiropractic care, physiotherapy, massage therapy) for common clinical encounters. These may include initial assessments, progress notes, treatment plans, and follow-up visits.
Payment processing integration: Integrate Juvonno with leading third-party payment gateways to facilitate secure and efficient payment processing. This integration allows practices to accept payments from patients using various methods, including credit cards, debit cards, and electronic funds transfer (EFT).
Starting price: | $49 per user per month |
Cost to upgrade: | $89 per user per month |
Billing cycle: | Annual |
Customer support options: | Chat, emails, help center, and FAQs |
Who should consider Juvonno?
Juvonno allows you to create and send email campaigns directly from the platform. This includes designing visually appealing emails and scheduling delivery times. It enables users to track engagement metrics such as open rates and click-through rates, making it a good option for medical practitioners and therapists looking to market their practice.
6. Jane
Jane is an online booking, charting, and scheduling EMR application for medical practitioners. The application lets you conduct up to 20 online and in-person appointments in the base plan. You can also leverage a patient portal to enhance patient communication and obtain medical documents from them. You can send unlimited appointment reminders to patients via email. Jane also provides charting templates and intake forms to assess your patients and create treatment plans for them.
Jane’s base plan offers online and in-person 1:1 appointment management, unlimited email appointment reminders, a secure patient portal, charting templates, intake forms, and free data import. Upgrading to a premium plan offers unlimited appointments, SMS appointment reminders, and staff profiles. You also get customizable branding and selective availability toggle for clients.
Base plan features*:
Email and SMS payment requests: Send payment requests and invoices to patients via email and SMS and track their responses. You can include secure payment links in the email invoices, directing patients to a payment portal where they can enter their payment information and complete transactions.
Gift cards: Create digital gift cards directly within the Jane platform. This process typically involves setting the card value, selecting a design or template, and specifying any terms or restrictions (e.g., expiration date, applicable services).
Staff and location management: Adjust your staff members’ permission levels to ensure the right amount of access to patient information from your schedule. Create weekly shift schedules for multiple practitioners, and update them with Jane’s ‘Manage Shifts’ feature.
Starting price: | $54 per user per month |
Cost to upgrade: | $79 per user per month |
Billing cycle: | Annual |
Customer support options: | Chat, email, help center, and FAQs |
Who should consider Jane?
Jane lets you run outcome measure surveys to understand what kind of improvements you can make to your services. Such surveys are extremely helpful for professionals such as chiropractors, physiotherapists, and massage therapists who need constant feedback regarding their services. Additionally, practitioners wishing to offer patients gift cards and market their services can also opt for Jane.
Pro tip
Check whether you can incorporate your logo, colors, and messaging into the software. Such branding and customization enable you to highlight your brand and help patients easily identify you during remote sessions.
Top 5 EMR software features users rate as highly critical
Reviewers of EMR software emphasize the critical importance of the following features. To identify these features, we asked users to rate, on a scale of “low importance” to “critical,” how important different features are for remote support software. The features showcased are those that the highest percentage of reviewers rated as “highly important” or “critical” over the past two years (as of June 21, 2024).
Feature name | Criticality rating (%) | Description |
|---|---|---|
Patient records management | 96% | Store all patient-related data including demographics (name, age, gender, contact information), medical history, past illnesses, surgeries, allergies, medications, immunizations, and family medical history in a centralized repository. |
Charting | 89% | Use pre-designed templates for common clinical encounters (e.g., routine check-ups, specific diseases) and document information consistently and efficiently. |
Appointment scheduling | 82% | Schedule appointments for patients directly within the EMR platform. This centralized approach ensures that all appointment information is stored in one place and is easily accessible to authorized users. |
Claims management | 70% | Generate accurate claims based on documented patient encounters and procedures. This integration ensures that claims are submitted promptly and accurately. |
Medical billing | 67% | Use automated coding tools to help translate clinical documentation into standardized codes, reducing errors and ensuring accurate billing. |
How much does EMR software cost?
An EMR software solution can cost as low as $12 per month or up to $640+ per month, depending on various factors—features, number of practitioners, infrastructure requirements, practice size/type, training availability, deployment options, integrations, and storage. Most EMR solutions typically include the following pricing plans:
Free trials: Range from seven to 14 days and give users access to either all or limited features of the software. These no-cost trial plans are ideal for small practitioners who wish to try out a tool before purchasing it.
Free versions: Offer perpetual access to limited software features. These free plans are ideal for practitioners on a budget.
Entry-level plans: Start at $12 per month and offer access to standard features. These are suitable for practitioners with basic feature requirements, such as scheduling, charting, and billing/invoicing.
Mid-tier plans: Range from $19 to $540 per month and offer advanced features such as multi-user access, automated patient scheduling, and integrated payment processing. These plans are suitable for practitioners who have outgrown entry-level EMR solutions but don’t require the full range of functionality offered by enterprise-level tools.
High-end plans: Cost more than $79 per month and offer a range of advanced features, including multi-language support, advanced patient analytics, medical diagnosis procedures, and integrations with third-party systems. These are suitable for large medical practitioners with multiple specialists.
Hidden costs associated with affordable EMR software
Besides the license, additional costs can include:
Upgrade requirements: Lower-tier plans may lack essential features such as advanced reporting, security, or multi-user access, requiring costly upgrades.
Limited support: Limited customer support may slow down issue resolution, potentially impacting productivity.
Data storage: Surpassing initial storage capacity could involve extra costs.
Frequently asked questions when selecting affordable EMR software
Here are some questions to ask an EMR vendor to find the best EMR software for your needs:
Does the software support customizable templates for different specialties and types of visits?
The selected software should have customizable intake forms and questionnaires to capture patient data depending on your practice type. For instance, a mental health practitioner will have different requirements than a heart specialist. This may include forms with specific sections to choose and describe mental health history and current symptoms.
Is there an integrated e-prescribing module that supports electronic prescriptions and medication history?
E-prescribing minimizes errors due to illegible handwriting, incorrect dosing, and misunderstood verbal orders. Additionally, features such as automated dosage calculators ensure the correct dose is prescribed based on patient-specific factors like age, weight, and renal function.
Can it import and export patient records to and from other EMR systems?
Patient information migration from third-party systems or your current EMR software ensures there’s no loss of crucial medical data. This enables practitioners to communicate more effectively within the system, share patient information, and collaborate on treatment plans.
Methodology
To be considered for this list, products had to:
Feature in Software Advice’s FrontRunners Report 2024 for EMR software.
Include charting and patient records management as the core features.
Meet our market definition for EMR software: “EMR software automates the clinical operations of healthcare providers. It allows medical professionals to create, store, update, and share digital patient charts, histories, medications, test results and more.”
For all the 24 products included in the FrontRunners report, we assessed the monthly subscription price of the base plans and found the average price to be $76.49—we considered only products with publicly available pricing information. We then shortlisted products with a monthly base price lower than $76.49 for this article.
*Our research team identified these features from vendor websites (as of June. 21, 2024) based on their analysis of what users find valuable in or expect from EMR software. This list is not exhaustive. For additional features, refer to the vendor’s website.
Editorial independence: We select and rank products based on an objective methodology developed by our research team. While some vendors may pay us when they receive web traffic or leads, this has no influence on our methodology.
Note: Products evaluated for the pricing calculation were taken from Software Advice’s EMR software directory. The pricing ranges exclude freemium versions of the products. The features highlighted were identified based on their relevance and the percentage of products in the Software Advice directory that offer them. Only products with publicly available pricing information, as of June 21, 2024, were considered for pricing calculation.