Family physicians concerned EHR providers may charge exorbitant fees for data

In a position statement, the College of Family Physicians of Canada contends that EHR vendors shouldn't be allowed to charge high fees for data for third-party networks. They note that earlier this year, some vendors indicated that research networks would have to pay "prohibitive" extraction fees for data beyond regular packages. While the vendors eventually backtracked, the CFPC is concerned that they may revisit the issue later. The college's position is that EHR data belongs to patients, not vendors and that clinicians are custodians. It adds that fees in the hundreds-of-thousands of dollars is a poor business model, suggesting a reasonable service charge to cover the cost of the work needed to prepare data.