15 Questions to Ask Any EMR Vendor Before You Sign

The single most reliable filter for an EMR vendor is proof: a verifiable PhilHealth certification number, a written data-export guarantee, a named migration plan, and a price list with no hidden add-ons. Everything else — the demo, the sales deck, the feature list — is secondary until those four are answered in writing.

This matters more in 2026 than ever. eKonsulta is being retired, and PhilHealth has made engaging a certified EMR Service Provider a formal accreditation requirement. Signing with the wrong vendor now doesn't just cost you a bad software experience — it can delay your Statement of Accounts Payable (SAP) and put capitation payments at risk. Use the 15 questions below as a script for every vendor call.

Why This Checklist Exists Now

The short answer: eKonsulta is shutting down, and PhilHealth requires every YAKAP clinic to have already picked its replacement. PhilHealth Advisory No. 2025-0077, signed December 23, 2025, ordered eKonsulta decommissioned and required clinics to declare their chosen EMR Service Provider to their LHIO by April 1, 2026. Advisory No. 2026-0038, signed June 30, 2026, extended eKonsulta to December 31, 2026 for clinics still migrating — a deadline extension, not a reprieve. Advisory 2025-0077 is explicit that non-compliance "may directly affect the timely processing and verification" of a clinic's SAP. In March 2026, roughly 800 private hospitals were warned they risked being barred from YAKAP over the EMR requirement, with the Private Hospitals Association calling the cost burden "coercive and unfair" — vendor selection now carries real financial stakes, not just workflow ones.

If you haven't compared vendors yet, our Best EMR for YAKAP Clinics in the Philippines (2026 Guide) is a useful starting shortlist before you start asking these questions.

Certification and Compliance Proof

The direct answer: don't take "we're PhilHealth-certified" at face value — ask for the certificate number and check it yourself against PhilHealth's public list.

1. What is your PhilHealth YAKAP 1.1 certification number, and when was it issued? PhilHealth maintains an official roster of certified service providers split into eClaims 3.0 and YAKAP 1.1 categories. A real vendor gives you a certificate number on the spot.
2. Can I verify that number myself on PhilHealth's site, independent of your marketing page? An evasive answer is a red flag — certification status is public record, not a claim to trust blindly.
3. Does your platform generate the PCU liveness check, the Digital YES, and FPE XML uploads PhilHealth now requires? Under PhilHealth Advisory No. 2026-0029, the digital Empanelment Slip is now "the primary and required platform for beneficiary empanelment," and SAP 1 payment requires a successful PCU check plus uploaded FPE data — your EMR must produce all of it natively.
4. What happens to my accreditation if you lose certification mid-contract? Ask this in writing; a vendor confident in its compliance posture will have an answer ready.

Data Ownership and Export Rights

The direct answer: your patient data is yours, and any contract that doesn't say so in plain language — including a guaranteed export format and timeline — is a contract you should not sign.

5. Do I own my patient records outright, or are they licensed back to me? Get this in the contract, not a sales call.
6. Can I export my full database — patients, consultations, XML claims — at any time, in a usable format, without a fee? Ask specifically about CSV and XML exports; XML is the format PhilHealth itself consumes.
7. What happens to my data if I stop paying or switch vendors? A vendor that can hold your records hostage on non-renewal is one to avoid regardless of price.
8. How do you handle eKonsulta migration — cipher key transfer, XML import, and the "no parallel run" cutover? Once PhilHealth issues a new cipher key to your chosen provider, the old eKonsulta key is killed immediately — a real technical hazard. Plan your cutover date deliberately and confirm your vendor can import your historical eKonsulta XML rather than starting from zero. See our Switching EMRs Without Losing Your YAKAP Data migration guide for the full mechanics.

Migration and Training Support

The direct answer: migration assistance should come from the vendor, not be something you're left to figure out alone — PhilHealth's own guidance assumes it will.

9. Will you actively help me migrate off eKonsulta, or just hand me documentation? Advisory 2025-0077 itself notes that assistance for the transition "can be extended by their selected EMR provider" — migration support is a reasonable, expected ask, not a favor.
10. What does onboarding look like week-by-week, and how long until my staff can run a full consultation unassisted? Get a realistic timeline, not "same day."
11. Is training a one-time session, or ongoing — free or billed separately? Staff turnover is normal in clinics; ask whether re-training a new hire six months from now costs extra.

Pricing Transparency

The direct answer: ask for the full all-in monthly cost — subscription, per-user fees, payment processing, and migration/training charges — before you compare any two vendors, because published "starting at" prices rarely include all of it.

12. What is the total monthly cost, including every user, device, and module I'll actually need? Published PH EMR pricing varies widely — some vendors list per-clinic plans in the P1,500/month range, others price modules separately. Our EMR Pricing Philippines guide breaks down what's typically bundled versus billed extra.
13. Are there separate fees for payment processing, SMS/notifications, or PhilHealth XML submission? Some vendors add a percentage-plus-fixed transaction fee on top of the base subscription — ask explicitly.
14. Is there a YAKAP-specific price, or is that folded into a general plan? Several vendors publish general pricing but stay silent on what YAKAP-specific features (PCU, FPE, capitation tracking) cost.
15. What's the cancellation and refund policy if the platform doesn't perform as promised? A vendor unwilling to put an exit clause in writing is telling you something about how confident they are in their own product.

For the features that should be non-negotiable regardless of price, see 12 EMR Features That Actually Matter for YAKAP Clinics.

How RecordKo Answers These Questions

RecordKo is built for the certified-EMR era of YAKAP compliance end-to-end: the reception-to-doctor flow captures PCU liveness checks at registration and consultation, generates the Digital YES, and produces eKAS and ePresS documents with full physician PRC/PTR/S2 detail. Every consultation is packaged into encrypted XML with its own transmittal number and tracked against your capitation tranches, so FPE and performance-tranche progress are visible without manually reconciling spreadsheets. For clinics still on eKonsulta, RecordKo supports batch XML import and CSV/XLSX masterlist ingest so historical data carries over instead of starting from zero. Export of patients, consultations, and claim XML is available to your clinic at any time, because it's your data.

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