
Since financial commitments play a huge part in making a decision about which policy management software vendor to employ, it is not surprising that one of the most common questions we get asked by prospective clients is about the cost of policy management software. The answer to the question is not as simple as just providing a dollar amount. Usually, to help provide a healthcare organization with an accurate pricing structure requires more in-depth discussion to get a better understanding of the complete scope of the project. It may be that selecting our healthcare policy management software will provide good value for money for your organization, or it may be the case that you get better value with another vendor. In either case we will be happy to help you arrive at that decision by breaking down the cost of policy management software.
Different Software Vendors
There are a number of software vendors that we come across who offer policy management software, and all of them have different ways of pricing their software. We do not claim to know exactly how other vendors are pricing their own policy management software, but often there is a tiered pricing scale based on a hospital’s size. This helps the vendor to determine where the hospital fits on that pricing scale. Some vendors use bed size, number of employees, number of concurrent software licenses, or even the number of documents to help determine their pricing structure. Over and above the cost for the software and interfaces (like linking to a hospital’s Active Directory), is usually a one-time charge for implementation and training. Hospitals and other healthcare organizations, like long-term care or health insurance plan providers, have to take into account all of these variables when budgeting for a policy management solution.
Pricing Structure
Each situation is unique, but generally speaking our pricing is typically based on the number of full-time employees for an organization. However this does not mean that only the full-time employees will be able to access the software. In fact, all employees at the hospital will be able to search and view policies, regardless of whether they are part-time or not. We use the number of full-time employees to help gauge the size of the healthcare organization, and determine where that organization would fit in our tiered pricing scale. Any organization with under 150 full-time employees falls in our lowest pricing threshold of $3,000 per year. For organizations with more than 150 full-time employees, we would usually schedule additional conversations with people in the Quality or Compliance departments to get a better understanding of all the requirements for that healthcare organization and help accurately determine the best possible pricing structure. Something that is important for prospective clients to note is that we do not place a limit on the number of user licenses or number of documents that you can upload into our software. This allows our solution to scale as our clients continue to grow.
Other Policy Management Software Costs
Other costs for hospitals to consider when budgeting for a policy management solution are the costs for implementation and training.
Training can either be done through online training methods or onsite training, where someone from the software vendor company will travel to the hospital and educate the different types of users on all of the features and functionality of the software.
In many cases, travel expenses like flight, hotel, meals, etc for those trainers is a separate cost for the hospital.
Usually the costs for implementation and training are one-time fees. Our client interactions team works with all new clients to help set-up and configure the system to run efficiently and to help ensure a smooth transition from their existing system to our software. We offer both online and onsite training options for our audience members, depending on their specific needs.
Another type of cost that needs to be considered are the interfaces needed, such as the Active Directory “single sign-on” interface which typically allows for users to access their policy management software with their existing network usernames and passwords. There may be other interfaces offered by policy management software vendors that could add to the total overall annual fees. For example, we offer other unique additional interfaces, like our Regulations & Standards interface, to allow clients to crosswalk policies within our software to the appropriate regulation or standard.
You Get What You Pay For
Pricing is often the biggest hurdle to overcome when getting approval and sign-off for the adoption of a new policy management solution. CEOs and CFOs want to make sure that there is value in the new software and that the return on investment is compelling. Here at PolicyMedical, we admit that we are not the cheapest solution in the market. We take pride in our software solutions and the services we provide to ensure our clients are always happy. For us good, reliable and user friendly policy management software is of the utmost importance.
To learn more about our solutions, or if you have questions regarding costs of our policy management software, please click here. Alternatively to schedule a free demonstration click here.
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