How Much Does Cerner Cost?

“How much does Cerner cost?” is often speculated by healthcare providers and organizations because the exact number is not available anywhere on the Oracle Cerner website.

Cost is vital in Cerner EHR implementation, especially for independent practitioners, small clinics, and mid-sized healthcare organizations.

From research, the cost of Cerner EHR is $25 per user per month. This pricing can vary based on aspects such as customization, training, maintenance, features, and complexity of Cerner EHR. For instance, the total cost of installing Cerner in a mid-size hospital (100 to 300 beds capacity) ranges between $2 million to $5 million. In a recent development, Petersburg (Alaska) Medical Center spent $1.3 million to install Cerner. The hospital funded the project through a state grant.

Aspects Impacting the Cost of Cerner EHR

1. Customization Of Cerner EHR

Cerner EHR is an off-the-shelf solution, but its features can be enhanced or tweaked to align with the requirements of healthcare providers. The cost of customization of Cerner EHR will depend on the number of features and integrations added or enhanced.

On an average the cost of custom Cerner EHR can vary anywhere between $1000 to $1,000,000. The range is quite broad because the pricing will change as per the size of the healthcare organization too. For a large-size organization the cost of customization of Cerner EHR can touch millions of dollars.

2. Complexity of Cerner EHR

Reviews for Cerner Ambulatory suggest that it offers easy customization and integration with third party tools, amazing customer support, and customized macros and auto text features are available in Powerchart. However, there have been reviews of poor UX/UI design and this can confuse the users.

To avoid navigational and UI/UX issues, Cerner provides training, which adds up to the total cost of the Cerner EHR software. Despite the extra charges, Cerner ensures that their users can seamlessly share and access data.

Recently, Oracle Corp. has signed a contract with Accenture to improve the training Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) clinicians receive on using the VA’s Cerner Millennium-based electronic health record platform. VA has signed a 10 year $10 billion deal with Cerner for implementing the Oracle Cerner Millennium EHR system. The training cost will obviously be an addition to $10 billion.

3. Features and Integrations

Features and integrations of Cerner EHR serve over 55 different healthcare specialties. However, not every healthcare provider will be in need of all the features. A $25 subscription allows practitioners to gain access to basic features such as medical record access, e-prescribing, dashboard, notes, etc.

The integration of additional software such as practice management, medical billing, and more is likely to increase the cost of Cerner EHR software. Medical practitioners can control their expenses by cutting down unnecessary features.

Recent additions to Cerner EHR such as Zoom and SMART on FHIR can increase the pricing of the software from a few hundred dollars to over hundred thousand dollars, which again depends on the number of users and size of the organization.

Healthcare organizations can always opt for a custom EHR software development because it allows healthcare practitioners to choose their choice of features and integrations, rather than settling for a few basic ones or not getting their choice of features.

A custom EHR software can work best for medical specialties as their requirements differ than a GP. For instance, features of a cardiovascular-specific EHR includes stress tests, Warfarin interaction alerts, pacemaker visits, and more. Heart disease patients can easily trace their reports and manage their health with this unique EMR.

4. Size of the Medical Organization and Number of Users

The cost of Cerner EHR can vary based on the size of the medical organization. The pricing depends on the number of healthcare providers, support staff, and beds.

Size of the Medical Organization	Cost
Self Hosted/Single Practitioner	starting at $25/user/month
Small-Size Clinic (1-250 beds with over 200 staff)	up to $2,250
Mid-Size Hospital (50 to 400 beds with over 500 staff)	$6,600 to $40,000
Large Hospitals and Hospital Chains (500+ beds with over 1000 staff)	$14,925 to $100,000

Note: Cost calculated according to the number of people working in the medical organization: Source: beckershospitalreview

5. Training Costs

As pointed out in the article, the cost of Cerner for training are added to the EHR implementation expenses. The cost of training will vary depending on the number of users and the size of the healthcare organization. On an average the cost of training can vary anywhere between $2000 to $1,000,000, based on the size and number of users.

6. Maintenance

Compared to Epic EHR, the cost of maintaining Cerner EHR is lower. A report suggests that the upgrade cost of Epic is almost 50 percent of the initial contract value, whereas Cerner’s EHR cost is around 35 percent of the initial contract value.

Maintenance and upgrading costs take away a major chunk of the estimated budget and at times more than required. Hidden costs such as downtime, bug fixes, and data breaches can take a toll on the healthcare organization. So, to avoid any extra expenses ensure to update and maintain Cerner EHR regularly.

7. Data Migration

Migrating data from legacy systems to Cerner EHR software can be a laborious and costly process. This cost can be even higher if the data is small or complex. Consequently, the cost of Cerner EHR migration is contingent upon the size and intricacy of the data. On average, the cost of the migration can range from a couple of thousand to a few hundred thousand dollars.

Is Custom Development A More Viable Alternative To Cerner EHR?

With customized EHR software you have complete ownership of the software (depends on the agreement and the vendor too). And not to forget unlimited feature and functionality options. With custom EHR you can start small and then scale later. It offers timely maintenance and upgrades, along with customer support 24/7. Custom EHR is designed as per your medical practice or healthcare facility. However, it can be costly and can take a while to develop the EHR software.

Off-the-shelf EHRs such as Cerner and Epic are cheaper than customized software and they are easy to install and use. However, they come with limited feature and functionality options. Practitioners may have to compromise on design and interface.

Custom EHR software promises to bring uniqueness to the table. Every practitioner can get the exact features that they require, along with a perfect design that suits their clinic environment. Arkenea gives you that unique, hand-crafted EHR software that will stand apart from the crowd in the market. We are a top-notch healthcare software development company in the USA and our team of experts deliver products that meet your requirements and match with industry standards.