In a move that expands its client reach in the ambulatory space, Chicago-based Allscripts has announced it will acquire electronic health record (EHR) vendor Practice Fusion for $100 million.
Allscripts expects to complete the transaction by the end of the first quarter following a waiting period required under antitrust laws.
San Francisco-based Practice Fusion was founded in 2005 and grew as a free, web-based EHR to help small physician practices earn Meaningful Use incentives. Practice Fusion provides an affordable, cloud-based EHR primarily geared to small, independent physician practices. The company supports 30,000 ambulatory practices and 5 million patient visits a month. According to the company, in 2014, Practice Fusion’s EHR facilitated over 56 million patient visits, approximately 6 percent of all ambulatory visits in the US.
The deal comes six months after Allscripts announced it would pay $185 million in cash to acquire McKesson’s hospital and health system IT business, Enterprise Information Systems, which included the Paragon EHR. That deal expanded Allscripts' hospital footprint. And, that particular deal came as no surprise to healthcare IT leaders as McKesson executives had let it be known for some time that they were looking to sell off that segment of their overall company.
Allscripts, which ranked No. 13 on the 2017 Healthcare Informatics 100 with $1.3 billion in revenue, stressed at the time of the McKesson deal that it would invest in and continue to offer Paragon as its integrated EHR and revenue cycle management solution for the small hospital market segment, while Allscripts Sunrise will continue as the primary platform for larger institutions.
In this latest deal, Allscripts leaders say combining Practice Fusion’s partnerships with life sciences companies with Allscripts’ existing payer and life sciences business, the company expects to expand its big data insights and analytics, data sharing technologies, and clinical trial solutions to enable life sciences organizations to accelerate bringing life-changing therapies to market.
“This strategic acquisition is expected to further advance Allscripts’ strategy to offer the most comprehensive, high performing health information technology and solutions. Practice Fusion’s EHR will complement and round out Allscripts existing ambulatory clinical portfolio, providing a value offering and ‘last mile’ reach to the under-served clinicians in small and individual practices,” Allscripts officials stated in a press release.
“By adding Practice Fusion offerings to our portfolio, Allscripts will be further positioned for continued growth and long-term leadership in healthcare,” Allscripts president Rick Poulton said in a prepared statement. “Combined with Practice Fusion, we expect Allscripts to continue to drive innovation in addressing gaps-in-care, improving clinical outcomes and real-world-evidence research. Plus, Practice Fusion’s affordable EHR technology supports traditionally hard-to-reach independent physician practices, and its cloud-based infrastructure aligns with Allscripts forward vision for solution delivery.”
Poulton continued, “We believe this transaction will directly benefit Practice Fusion clients, who will now have access to Allscripts solutions and services. We look forward to welcoming Practice Fusion team members to our family. Allscripts highest priority remains to successfully meet healthcare providers’ highly complex needs as we enable them to lead the change to smarter care.”
