McKesson, an Atlanta-based provider of various health IT products, has announced that it is giving away $1 million worth of EHR software to physicians who provide charity care to underserved and needy patients. The initiative will have McKesson give its web-based EHR to 100 physicians for a free 26-month license, which the company says typically costs $399 per month.

“Leaders in the healthcare industry have recognized EHR technology as a ‘must have’ for many years now. Ironically, though, where the technology is perhaps most needed – in the practices serving patients who are struggling to access care – it is often the least accessible. At McKesson, we are doing what we can to help physicians change that equation,” David Henriksen, senior vice president, McKesson’s physician practice solutions, said in a statement.

A McKesson committee will select physicians from applicants in the 10 metropolitan areas with the largest impoverished populations to receive the free software. These cities include: Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee, St. Louis, Miami, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, and Newark. To qualify for the software, physician practices must be either primary care, internal medicine, family practice, gynecology, or pediatric practitioners, be in private practice, (not hospital employed), work in a 1-10 physician practice; have a demonstrated history of providing unreimbursed care to the low-income community for six months or more, and have broadband or high speed Internet connectivity in the location where the physician expects to use the software.