This Week’s Health IT Business News

It’s a new year and 2012 was a big year for health IT mergers and acquisitions. So what will we see in 2013? According to a Healthcare IT News report this week, the 2012 trend will definitely continue, quoting an industry analyst saying that the trend will likely continue. “I think we’ll continue to see, over the next five to seven years, the consolidation of healthcare services and solutions because we have a lot of disparate, niche players, and in the end people don’t want a thousand different vendors.” It could be a landmark year for Health IT.

Health IT Mergers, Acquisitions and Funding

We start this column back up again after a holiday hiatus with the announcement of athenahealth’s acquisition of mobile medical apps company Epocrates for $293 million. Both companies are traded on NASDAQ. According the the press release issued the buy signals athenahealth’s move to increase its number of medical professionals it serves and expand product offerings through mobile device technologies. Epocrates is used by over 330,000 physicians.

In other M&A news, Wolters Kluwer Health, major player in the health IT and business intelligence arenea, announced the completion of their acquistion of Health Language,  a company in the Medical Terminology Management (MTM) market. The acquisition wil expand Wolters Kluwer Health’s position in the point-of-care market. Arvind Subramanian , President & CEO, Wolters Kluwer Health Clinical Solutions said “Health Language is a recognized leader in the MTM field and the right expert to provide our customers with new levels of system interoperability to meet current and future healthcare information sharing needs.”

ManTech International, a provider of support services to federal government agencies has acquired ALTA Systems, a provider of IT services for CMS and other government agencies. The acquisition will enable ManTech to deliver technology services through ALTA’s prime position on CMS’ Enterprise Systems Development (ESD) contract. ManTech is traded on NASDAQ.

In funding news EHR vendor SRS Software announced it has received a substantial investment from Thoma Bravo, a private equity investment firm that specialized in IT. According to the  press release the “investment will provide investment capital and strategic support to expand SRS’ market share and solidify SRS’ position as an industry leader.” CEO and founder Evan Steele will continue stay on.

Partnerships and Contracts

News comes this week that cloud-based EHR CareCloud and online physician community provider QuantiaMD will partner to give the 160,000 in the QuantiaMD membership community the ability to navigate through the EHR incentive programs and other health IT mandates. “As CareCloud considered ways to combine the power of technology and community for the benefit of physicians, it was clear that QuantiaMD was the only partner for us. They have built a robust platform that leverages the latest in social tools and game mechanics to facilitate meaningful and consistent engagement around critical issues such as practice profitability,” said Albert Santalo, Chairman and CEO of CareCloud.

SA Ignite, a provider of software solutions to help streamline and automate meaningful use, has been awarded a contract by the  Chicago Health IT Regional Extension Center (CHITREC). CHITREC providers will utlizee SA Ignite’s MU Assistant to help achieve meaningful use. Read the details here.

Delaware’s statewide health information exchange (DHIN), has announced that AlliedHIE Company, a certified health IT services provider (HISP) in Pennsylvaniaect, has been selected as an approved Direct messaging provider for DHIN’s enrolled practices. The messaging and interoperability technology for this system will be provided by ICA’s CareAlign® Direct Messaging and Exchange solutions.

CalHIPSO, a California-based regional extension center (REC), has selected ClearDATA Networks to offer HIPAA-compliant cloud hosting, offsite backup, disaster recovery, and HIPAA privacy and security services to the providers the REC serves.

EHR vendor Cerner is partnering with ICON, a provider of outsourced development services for the pharmaceutical, biotechnology and medical device industries, to streamline late phase ressearch studies.

Leading telehealth provider Teledoc announced an agreement in principal of a new partnership with healthcare technology company HealthSpot, The agreement will further enhance Teledoc’s ability to offer on-site, walk-in medical diagnostic technology stations.

Product Development

T-System, Inc. announced the availability of newly compiled benchmark data to help hospitals enhance in patient flow and capacity. Hospitals can access their complimentary benchmark data by clicking here.  According the T-System’s press release the de-identified included in this benchmark data is grouped in five distinct sets of annual patient visit (APV) volumes with the data aggregated from hospitals using their system. The data is intended to help hospitals measure the value of automating their emergency department processes or, if already automated, determine if a hospital can improve efficiencies.