Medsphere Systems, Stockell Healthcare merge in marriage of EHR, revenue cycle tech

Medsphere Systems and Stockell Healthcare Systems will merge, uniting under one banner Medsphere's subscription-based electronic health record system and Stockell's suite of revenue cycle management tools. The transaction is expected to officially close later this month.

Stockell will become a division of Medsphere and continue to use the Stockell name. Medsphere and Stockell are well acquainted through previous implementations but now will work together more closely.

This news follows other recent revenue cycle company mergers. Revenue cycle management tech companies Navicure and ZirMed are merging into one company. The combined entity will market its suite of analytics-driven solutions to hospitals, health systems and ambulatory services organizations, including physician practices, with the goal of improving financial performance.

[Also: Tracking 2017 mergers and acquisitions]

And Allscripts is buying rival McKesson's health IT unit. For $185 million in cash, Allscripts gains the product portfolio McKesson calls Enterprise Information Solutions consisting of the Paragon EHR, Star and HealthQuest revenue cycle technologies, OneContent content management tools, as well as Lab Analytics and Blood Bank.

Medsphere and Stockell said the future is in the cloud. This past summer, Medsphere initiated the company's cloud strategy starting with Southern Inyo Hospital and continuing that delivery model for other clients. Stockell provides InsightCS and related services to clients via its RCM Cloud hosted service.

"We've collaborated several times on previous implementations, so this really seemed like a natural and very beneficial evolution of the relationship," said Medsphere president and CEO Irv Lichtenwald. "The integration of OpenVista clinicals and InsightCS revenue cycle has already created a system that dramatically improves operational efficiency and the bottom line for our clients. We're confident that subscription-based pricing and improved billing through an integrated RCM system will mitigate the financial impact of a large healthcare IT purchase."

Medsphere's OpenVista EHR was initially derived from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs VistA system. Since its founding, Medsphere has systematically reduced dependence on VistA by significantly enhancing the system using more modern technologies, including mobility, improved patient documentation, population health and behavioral health modules, the company said.

Stockell's InsightCS system features a menu of options for managing key revenue cycle touch-points, including patient engagement, registration, scheduling, billing, collections, business analytics and reporting, the company said.

Twitter: @SiwickiHealthIT
Email the writer: bill.siwicki@himssmedia.com