You have four real routes out of ModMed EMA: the EHI export every certified EHR must offer (free for the standard export, according to ModMed), the Bulk FHIR API (free, structured, clinical data only), the proprietary API (complete and two-way, but paid and gated), and EMA's built-in reports. For a full copy of your practice's records, the EHI export is the place to start, and the one date that matters is the day your access gets switched off. Take the export before then.
ModMed is one of the systems I've worked inside extensively, and everything below is checked against ModMed's own public documentation as of October 2026.
Route 1: the EHI export
Federal rules require every certified EHR to offer an electronic health information export for one patient or a whole practice, and ModMed's certification page lists EMA as certified to it. ModMed's mandatory disclosures, the document certified vendors have to publish about costs and limits, spell out how it works:
- Single patient: run from inside the EMA interface.
- Whole practice: "must be initiated by opening a support case." That's allowed. The federal rule makes the single-patient export self-service, but not the population one.
- Format: CSV files, "with Patient Visits extracted in .pdf format and all other files extracted in the format they were stored in EMA."
- Cost: "There is no fee for EMA clients for the standard EMA single patient or patient population EHI Export." Fees may apply for custom exports the standard export doesn't cover.
Two details matter more than the rest.
Billing comes along. ModMed's export data dictionaries, linked from the certification page, say practice-management tables are included in the dataset, financial tables like claims and payments among them, and are empty for practices not using ModMed PM. That makes this the one route that can cover both your clinical and your billing history.
Check the attachments. The disclosure says other files come out in their stored format, but the whole-practice data dictionary describes its document table as a log of file attachments and says "Physical attachments are excluded." Scanned documents, faxes, and outside records are usually the bulk of a practice's data. Before you rely on this route, ask ModMed in writing whether the files themselves arrive with a whole-practice export, or only the list of them.
The deadline that costs money
From the same disclosures: "For former clients who failed to take their EHI Export prior to url deactivation, there is a fee to reactivate the url prior to extracting data."
In plain terms: once your EMA access is turned off, getting your data back costs extra. ModMed's public documents don't say how long data is kept after termination or what the reactivation fee is. Those terms live in your own contract, which ModMed's terms of use refer to as your Transaction Documents. Read them before you give notice, not after.
Route 2: the Bulk FHIR API
ModMed's certified FHIR API is free to use: the disclosures say there's "No fee charged for certified APIs." Its developer portal says it "supports READ and SEARCH only (no WRITE capabilities) + Bulk FHIR," and bulk exports come back as NDJSON, a structured file format that software reads easily and people don't.
For a practice, the setup is light. A developer registers a Bulk FHIR application, and an administrator at your practice adds it once.
The limit is coverage. The portal's bulk export reference lists the clinical record types it exports: allergies, conditions, medications, results, care plans, and so on. It doesn't list appointments, claims, or payments. So this route is good for a clean, standard-format copy of the clinical record, or for keeping another system in sync. It isn't a full exit on its own.
Route 3: the proprietary API
ModMed's own API covers far more: the portal describes it as create, read, search, and update, for both EMA and ModMed PM. The disclosures say it's offered "for a fee," and outside developers reach it through ModMed's partner process. Our guide to connecting a CRM to ModMed walks through how that access works.
For a one-time exit it's usually more than you need. It earns its cost when you want a live, two-way connection, or when you need specific data in a specific shape on an ongoing basis.
Route 4: built-in reports
ModMed describes Data Explorer, included with EMA, as a self-service tool to "build reports with multiple dimensions and export them for further manipulation and analysis." That makes it useful for building the counts you'll verify an export against. It isn't a records export, so treat reports as your checklist, not as the copy itself.
Which route fits which job
| Route | What you get | Cost (per ModMed's disclosures) | Good for |
|---|---|---|---|
| EHI export | All EHI, including PM tables, as CSV plus files | No fee for the standard export | Leaving ModMed, a full archive |
| Bulk FHIR API | Clinical records as NDJSON | No fee | A standard-format clinical copy, ongoing sync |
| Proprietary API | Read and write, EMA and PM | A fee, plus partner approval | Live two-way connections |
| Data Explorer reports | Report exports you build | Included with EMA | Counts, lists, spot checks |
The step that makes it a real copy: verification
An export nobody checked is a guess. Before you cancel anything:
- Count first. Use reports to record how many patients, visits, documents, and open claims you have.
- Count the export. The numbers should match. If documents are missing, you'll know now, while you can still do something about it.
- Open a sample. Spot-check charts against the live system, and open a handful of files to confirm they're readable.
- Keep access until the checks pass. Given the reactivation fee, that overlap is the cheapest insurance in the project.
Our EHR switching checklist covers the rest of the move, from contract terms to running both systems in parallel.
A CSV export is complete, but it's shaped for ModMed, not for your next system. Turning it into something the new EHR can import, and proving nothing was lost, is the actual project. We've planned and delivered a complete, verified export of a practice's records, and our app development service and work with medical practices both start with a free conversation, a written inventory, and then a fixed quote.