OscarQC vs Oscar McMaster

The Quebec Health Ministry (RAMQ) has homologated (aka approved) a version of Oscar called OscarQC. This means that OscarQC is eligible for funding from RAMQ.

OscarQC is not OpenSource. It is a forked version of Oscar. There are advantages and disadvantages to this.

Here are some of the differences.

OscarQC is eligible for RAMQ funding.
This would be a big advantage for software with high licensing costs, but since Oscar is Open Source, there are no licensing fees and therefore little advantage.
The other recurring expense is maintenance and OscarQC has the advantage, since that expense is reimbursable by RAMQ.

Note: For GPs, only 70% of your expenses are reimbursable, so if you are paying 12 x $200 for support, you still need to pay $2,400 for yearly support and get $1,680 back from RAMQ. Your actual expense would be $720

OscarQC has the following additional features: Health card verification, Client Vulnerable registration and it shows the cost of insured medications.

OscarQC is hosted by Info-Data and cannot be installed in your office. It needs an internet connection to function. No internet = no OscarQC.

This _may_ be an advantage for clinics that do not want to have the server located in their own premises and the associated support and maintenance issues. Note: If you want a hosted version of Oscar, there are a few companies who currently offering that service.

OscarQC gives you no access to the database, so you could not hire a programmer to do work for you. This would include projects like importing data for new physicians or changing the Oscar program code. Note: Info-Data would be the only entity that could do that work.

Oscar McMaster is community supported and maintained. That means that it may take more time to see new features in OscarQC.