Full Circle Health Care's EHR vendor has blocked the practices' access to their patients' medical records as part of an ongoing billing dispute, according to a report in The Boston Globe.
CompuGroup asserts the Presque Isle, Maine-based practice owes $20,000 in back fees for use of the software. The EHR vendor says that until the fees are paid, the practice will not be able to access the records, according to the report.
Full Circle acknowledges the practice has not paid the $2,000 CompuGroup has billed them each of the past 10 months, but disputes the charges as unnecessarily high and in part for services that were never delivered, according to the report.
This is not the first time an EHR vendor has locked a provider out of its EHR system over a billing dispute. In July 2013, Milwaukee Health Services filed a lawsuit against Business Computer Applications, claiming the vendor blocked the provider's EHR access over missed payments.
In the case, the presiding judge denied Milwaukee Health Service's request for an injunction against BCA that would immediately restore EHR access, saying the provider has another recourse — paying the bill.
Full Circle has not filed a lawsuit, though is trying to negotiate with CompuGroup for temporary access so the health center can move the patient records over to a new EHR system. As the dispute continues, Full Circle providers remain without access to their patients' records. "I'm pretty desperate to get these records back," E. Victoria Grover, owner of Full Circle, told the Globe.
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