HIStalk Practice Interviews Ryan Howard, CEO and Chairman, Practice Fusion

A few weeks ago, I asked Practice Fusion to provide clarification on their number of users. They were forthcoming, and initially provided this response:

• We currently have a bit over 50,000 users and 5 million patients on the system.
• About 40% of those are MD/DO level users.
• The remaining 60% are in the NP/PA, nurse and staff categories.
• We bring on 200 new users each day and 500,000 patients are uploaded to the system each month.
• The list is regularly scrubbed of accounts that match specific inactivity criteria.
• We track activity level closely based on a couple different metrics. Mostly how many patients they have imported to their account and how many charts they’re pulling. We would be able to see that they were inactive because there weren’t any chart pulls. When account is scrubbed from our system for inactivity or by request, we don’t count their patients in our stats.

This information led to more questions. I spoke to Ryan Howard, CEO and chairman of Practice Fusion of San Francisco, CA.

I had sent over a number of questions and understand that you actually wanted to go over the questions over the phone rather than e-mail. Do you have those?

I don’t have them in front of me. We can definitely go through them. The net is that I did see them, so I am familiar with what you are talking about, and more than happy to answer questions.

I’ll be really transparent. With sharing our numbers, there’s going to be a balance of (1) my ability to run my business, and some things are strictly confidential, and (2) what’s standard in the sector. Some of your questions definitely dug deep and, I mean, I would just push back and say, “Of those questions for each of our competitors, what do you know?” This level of detail isn’t commonly shared, so, what I’m asking in advance is to take that you into consideration. I’ll give you what’s appropriate. We’ll dig a little deeper than I usually would.

Sure. I guess the biggest two areas of questions really have to do with the number of providers using the system and number of providers getting on. And based on some of the information you had sent over, the numbers just didn’t add up for me, so I just wanted to get a handle on that. The numbers I was given said about 40% of your users are MDs or DOs, which doing the math, I would say equates to about 20,000; and that you’re bringing on a total of about 200 new users a day; in other words, about 80 new providers a day. I was just trying to understand if my math was correct. If you back out 80 new providers a day, the numbers suggest that you’re adding 29,000 new providers a year, which doesn’t quite sound right if you only have 20,000 total providers. I’m just trying to get a feel for the actual number of doctors today and how many are being added. And then, how do you actually count a provider? Are they actively using the system and how is that math done?

What you need to keep in mind is the cadence of our growth has changed over time. From a static perspective, Practice Fusion is currently bringing on about 200 users a day.  It’s a little over that. Now about six months ago, we weren’t, though, right? Or a year ago we weren’t. So our velocity is faster at any given time. If you look at our growth curve, it kind of looks like a sloped hockey stick.

In 2010, we had around 500% growth on the physician side and on the patient side and on the volume side. Through our platform, we see about 1.3 million patients a month. That specifically means that doctors and practitioners on the system are seeing and pulling 1.3 million patient charts a month.

OK.

The net is that the data is accurate. I stand by those numbers, they’re right. Six months ago we were probably bringing on 100 users. Right now it’s more like 230 users a day to 250.

And a “user” means they’re actively going in, documenting charts, that type of thing? They’re not just loading it on there and testing it out?

There’s always a long tail of users testing the system that aren’t officially active. We only count an active user as a user that is actually seeing a specific benchmark of patients.

One of the things that’s interesting is that we know historically that two-thirds of all enterprise installations just fail. There’s a safe assumption that two-thirds of what other Big Iron vendors say about their user numbers is inaccurate. There are systems that have been abandoned, there’s been attrition, or users didn’t have successful implementations.

Because Practice Fusion has one Web-based, SaaS-based platform, I can pinpoint instantly how many users we have in our system. Internally, we have reports that the system outputs every single day and we know how many users were on Thanksgiving Day, how many users are on right now, and no one else — not many other guys — can do that.

The other thing I don’t talk about a lot is that we decommission any account that hasn’t been active within six months. There are rules around that in the system and there are some exceptions – we don’t just lock away an account that might be activated. For the sake of having sound data around the metrics, we have a process where, let’s say you logged in the system, you kicked the tires and you no longer wanted the system or you just didn’t use it, we would decommission your account. So our actual registered user number for this year is larger than what we reported. You have to factor in the decommissioned accounts. I would guess that takes a lot of the hyperbole out of the numbers for you.

Basically we left 2009 with 25,000 users. Forty percent of those guys were practitioners, so 10K practitioners, that sounds right off the top of my head. And then we’ll walk out of 2010 with about 60-65,000 total users, and again, we’ve maintained around that 40% number, so it’d be more like between the 24 and 28,000 practitioner number.

I was also looking at the number of patients. Do you have any feel for roughly how many patients a provider sees on a daily basis? Because, the numbers I received indicated something like a half a million patients being added per month, which is 16,500 patients per day; which came out to be about one new patient a day per provider. The math didn’t quite work there. I’m wondering if you have a feel for how many new patients a day a provider sees?

The numbers that we gave you were what was reported in our press release, that we’re currently adding about half a million patients to the system each month.

Right.

So I think again it kind of goes back to your original question. Our growth rate has not been consistent through the entire year; that is has increased significantly. So just to do a straight division on that doesn’t really make sense.

OK. About how long does it take do you think your average provider to get up and running live? What’s the average go-live time?

The go-live time is a little over a month right now, and we spend a lot of time on analysis to make sure that users are getting better at it. It generally depends on the user’s aptitude, but across the board, it’s about 30 days. It’s doing a go-live, it’s become fully active, it’s seeing 100 patients. That is our definition.

Seeing 100 patients?

There’s some different rationale around that number. Once the user has seen 100 patients, there’s a wide belief internally — based on analysis and product managers spending time with the users and our implementation team’s insight — that that user has mastered the system. They know it inside out. They don’t need any further training. The flip of that is that from the data side we know that the attrition rate at that point becomes single-digit percentage, so the user knows the system so well that they’re not just kicking the tires anymore because the data showed that.

And, if a provider wants to discontinue using the service, can they get an electronic version of all those patient records and any chart notes they’ve done?

So, if it’s only just inactive – they registered and they didn’t put any real data in the system – then we decommission them and then we give them a notification. Now, if someone has data in the EHR, we have a bunch of different methods for them to get their data out of the system. But if someone’s only put a few patients in, we generally will have a conversation with them and we’ll make sure that there’s no data in the system and we can export anything that has been entered. We can and we do export data, but my point is that generally a user who decides to leave hasn’t entered anything real because they are in the evaluation stage themselves.

Do patients’ charts stay on the system indefinitely? Do you ever take them off?

It’s a case-by-case scenario.

OK. One of the things I also noticed looking at your Web site is that your EHR is currently has modular certification as opposed to the complete certification. Are you helping clients get the additional programs they need to meet Meaningful Use requirements or do you anticipate getting full certification?

We’re 100% committed to full certification here at Practice Fusion. It’s listed all over our Web site and all of our users are up to date on that. So, modular certification for us is just the first step.

I know you’re privately held, but at what point do you anticipate the company will become profitable? I mean, with 500% growth, that’s pretty tremendous growth.

We don’t disclose any financial information, sorry. Unless you want to invest. And then if you want to invest, we can.

I have a spare million – I might.

Perfect. You’d be my best friend.

Good. Is there any other information on the company or what you’re doing that may be able to shed some light on your secret sauce and how you guys are operating?

We stand behind “what you see is what your get.” I think there’s a German philosopher that said… one of his old quotes was along the lines of, “All truths are violently opposed, ridiculed and then widely accepted as the truth.”

We’re doing something that’s counter-intuitive to the market, right? I mean the traditional EHRs that are available today, they’ve been there for 20 years. There’s nothing different, nothing innovative between Allscripts, eClinicalWorks, and almost any other vendor you look at.

What we do, again, is sort of counter-intuitive. It’s directly aligned with all the major initiatives today. All the data is in one central system. Data can be shared doctor to doctor real time. Patients can access the data very quickly in their own personal health record. The data can be queried; answers are within the data and the database. And what we’re doing is really unique on – not just the architectural model – on the business model as well and it’s incredibly progressive.

The sector is obviously upset by it, it’s disrupting the status quo and it’s real… I have more physician quotes – I can send you hundreds of quotes and hundreds of references. So the proof’s in the pudding. What other vendor can do that? I can literally share more people with you who are happy with us than any other vendor.

So, you and I can talk all we want, but I like let the community speak for me. It’s been a really incredible ride and we’re really excited about it and we think next year it’s going to be really, really interesting becoming the de facto standard.

Actually, I do have one other question. As a provider, is there anything I pay to Practice Fusion out-of-pocket other than if I want to have the version that doesn’t have the ads?

Nope. That’s it. It’s the philosophy on my side is to keep the product entirely free. As long as I’m leading the company, the product will always be free.

This may be a question you can’t answer, but how many providers, percentage-wise, take you up on the offer and actually are willing and able to pay for the no-ad versions?

[Laughing] We will never, ever tell that, sorry.

Never, ever, OK.

Never, ever, ever. It’s such a cute number, too. I told you you’d be captivated by it, but my background’s psychology. Human behavior’s great, and it’s just so telling. That one piece of data you can tell so much about the market, but I just can’t do it.

News 1/11/11

From Matt Cassell: “Re: Cerner Ambulatory. Great article on Cerner PowerWorks products. I think you’re right on target with your overview. I sold the product for over a year and I even spent time with Dr. Goldstein a few times in his office. Nice work.”  Thanks, Matt. The Cerner folks, by the way, said they would be responding to a couple of the comments and questions posted by readers.

Greenway Medical Technologies selects DiagnosisOne to provide clinical decision support for its EHR deployments.

Pulse Systems is named a solution partner for Virginia HIT, the REC for the state of Virginia. I tried to figure out the names of other selected vendors, but couldn’t find any details on the REC’s web site.

Gastorf Family Clinic (OK) is one of the first practices in the country to receive an EHR incentive check. The two-physician practice, which uses e-MDs’ EHR, was issued a check for $42,500 just two days after registering for the HITECH program.

Speaking of HITECH registration, CMS says 4,000 providers registered for EHR incentives in the first four days after its site went live on January 3.

Nuesoft Technologies announces the availability of Nuetopia, a service that combines EHR and medical billing software with RCM expertise. Nuesoft says practices should anticipate a 10% increase in net payment by subscribing. Nuesoft, by the way, is a HISsies nominee for Most Fun HIT Vendor. They certainly make some fun videos, like the one above, featuring Tony DaLuzza, aka “Tony Two Times.”

Billing and practice management service provider AdvantEdge Healthcare Solutions acquires competitor AMSplus, Inc., a division of CBay Systems.

WebPT, an EMR used by about 5,000 physical therapists, closes on $1 million in Series A VC funding. WebPT intends to use the funds to expand its product development, sales, and marketing teams and to build up its support infrastructure.

The Doctors Clinic (WA) launches Sage Healthcare’ patient portal, giving patients access to their medical records and supporting online appointment and prescription refill requests. The 80-physician clinic is implementing Sage Intergy EHR.

The Connecticut State Medical Society estimates that almost 40% of its doctors are now using EMRs, with larger practices leading the charge. Cost remains the biggest barrier. The medical society’s president predicts more smaller practices will consolidate or join larger groups in order to  afford new technology.

Please join me in shouting out a virtual hello to HIStalk Practice’s newest Platinum sponsor, Emdeon. The Nashville, TN-based company provides revenue and payment cycle management solutions that reach an impressive 340,000 providers, 5,000 hospitals, 600 vendor partners, 1,200 payers, 60,000 pharmacies, and 81,000 dentists. That’s more connections to payers, providers, and vendors than any other healthcare business. At HIMSS last year, Emdeon had the Harlem Globetrotters shooting baskets in the center of the booth. At MGMA, they partnered with an alligator conservation group and sponsored photo ops with an alligator (which I took advantage of). In other words, they strike me as a fun and creative bunch, which is exactly the kind of sponsor we love. Thanks, Emdeon, for your support!

A healthcare attorney shares some advice for physicians contracting with vendors for new technology. Some of the details he recommends to be spelled out include include who owns the  copyrights for customized software; defined dates for delivery and proof of operability; specified time periods for vendors to fix problems, as well as the consequences for missing deadlines; expectations for support response times and upgrades; and who holds the source code for any software in escrow. Plenty of vendors don’t like lawyers like him since it slows down the closing process and makes everything more complicated.

 E-mail Inga.

Intelligent Healthcare Information Integration 1/7/11

2011: Here We Go…

Ok, the New Year is here, and along with it, the onset of the deluge of EMR adoption resulting from ARRA/HITECH/Meaningful Use. Right?…Right?

Well, as the old Chinese philosopher said, “We’ll see.”

While I’m a huge fan of all this high tech mumbo jumbo and its associated doohickeymabobs, and I think, at least in Ohio and maybe another state or two, the RECs will be doing some bust-their-humps work to get docs online and digitally engaged, I’m still personally very inclined to agree with the aforementioned unnamed Chinese guru. It’s gonna be an interesting next few years in HIT-dom.

Meanwhile, patients keep coming and docs keep doctoring and my colleagues and cohorts at OHIP’s REC (Ohio’s primary REC) keep slaving away to try and figure out how to get all of us in healthcare, providers and patients alike, into not just the New Year, but finally into the current millennium.

And, me? I believe that this is all heading the right direction. It is way more complicated than most HIT sales folks want potential buyers to believe, but it is totally doable. And, it is totally worth it – even if your vendor leaves you seeking a new EMR just when you thought you were really getting into a good groove (…he said, with only the slightest hint of snark).

Back out on the EMR hunt, I remembered a tool I first became familiar with well after I had already started using an EMR. It’s a tool designed to help providers evaluate their practices’ current state of readiness, calculate the strategic workflow changes necessary, and guide the resulting EMR/EHR selection process. No, it really isn’t designed to be used for those practices that are already digital and which are considering a jump to a different system, but I wondered if the insights it provides might be helpful nonetheless.

I learned it back in 2009 when its primary visionary brought it to my attention at that year’s Pediatric Office of the Future exhibit. He asked me to take a look and provide comments. I became a big fan, but primarily from an academic perspective as I didn’t really need direct help from the tool, but felt many of my non-tech-infatuated colleagues might. It seemed to provide all of the better parts of an HIT consultant service, but at much lower cost and at a self-determined pace.

So, remembering its design, I decided to step back and look at this tool with my own needs in mind.

The short take? I’m an even bigger fan. I have discussed a few ideas with the developers some redesigns they might consider for future iterations to direct a side-path for practices seeking to change not from paper to EHR, but from EHR to EHR. Nevertheless, a more intimate deep dive into this tool has me decidedly happy with my decision to look at it from my “new needs” view.

It isn’t designed to be all things to all people. It doesn’t cover all the potential EMRs and EHRs out there. It doesn’t even try. (Would you?) But it does help providers, especially small practices, consider many of the ramifications and decision points necessary when considering a transition to an EHR, whether newbie or veteran. And, it does so in a very cost-effective, time- and workflow-conscious fashion.

The tool? Welch Allyn’s EHR Prep-Select. I can’t say it’ll be all things to all providers heading down this EHR hunt road, but I can say – with even more personal insight than ever – that it is one of my favorite recommendations when colleagues ask me about ways to help prepare for digitization.

“May all your troubles last as long as your New Year’s resolutions!” – Joey Adams

Dr. Gregg Alexander, a grunt in the trenches pediatrician, directs the “Pediatric Office of the Future” exhibit for the American Academy of Pediatrics and is a member of the Professional Advisory Council for ModernMedicine.com. More of his blather…er, writings…can be found at his blog, practice web site or directly from doc@madisonpediatric.com.

A Look at Cerner Ambulatory

Several weeks ago, I expressed surprise at the findings of an Ovum report entitled Selecting an Ambulatory EHR Vendor in the Healthcare Market. Specifically, that Cerner was rated the “most versatile and multi-faceted vendor.”

My comments prompted the folks at Cerner to invite me to view a demo so I could see for myself what Cerner Ambulatory is all about. From a short peek at MGMA, I commented that “compared to other EHRs on display throughout the exhibit hall, Cerner’s patient summary screen looked comparatively ‘busy’ and not particularly pretty.”

I have to commend the Cerner folks for their persistence because they again urged me to take more detailed look at their product. Cerner gave me a one-hour Web demo, with Dr. Gregg Alexander tagging along since he is, after all, a real doctor and has reviewed a number of EMRs in recent weeks for his own selection.

Here are a few impressions, starting with the positives.

• Cerner Ambulatory provides a comprehensive clinical summary screen for each patient. It’s easy to jump to various areas of the chart, including patient demographics. Most areas support hovering to reveal additional details without requiring a user to actually click on a particular field.
• The clinical summary screen is user-customizable.
• The product includes semantic search capabilities. This is helpful if, for example, you want to find every instance of the word diabetes in a chart. This feature isn’t unique to Cerner, but I still think the technology (based on SNOMED, in Cerner’s case) is fascinating and offers lots of potential.
• Cerner says its base application includes 700 pre-loaded templates. Their client base includes about 30 specialties, so I am assuming the templates are fairly broad.
• Overall, with the summary screen as the home base for most patient encounters, a user can perform most functions within a couple of clicks. The product appears to include all the basic functionality you’d expect in any contemporary EMR product.

On the other hand:

I stand by my original statement that the screens aren’t particularly pretty. While the summary screen, for example, provides tons of functionality, it’s lacking in the eye-friendliness category. The colors are bland, the font is small, and there is a whole lot going on.

Should pretty screens really matter? After using the system for a couple of days, wouldn’t a user be able to zero in to exactly the right field, even if a screen is busy?

I say yes — pretty screens matter. Other products (NextGen and SRS come to mind) are able to incorporate nice screens with good functionality, so technically it can be done. As Dr. Alexander noted, you would think developers would pay more attention to product appearance since it’s as easy to do it well as to do it not so well. Why would a doctor find it acceptable to have his or her cell phone screen look better than his or her EMR?

Here is another positive for Cerner. The KLAS scores for the ambulatory product are up 25% from last year. That is a heck of an achievement of any vendor.

The version I saw included this relatively new summary screen with its comprehensive functionality. Apparently functions that once took many, many, many clicks can now be done in a mere click or two. I assume that there is a strong correlation between higher KLAS scores and increased client satisfaction now that they have a better functioning product. Kudos to Cerner for streamlining their app for user efficiency.

The Cerner people are genuinely excited about their product, which from all reports has made great strides in the last couple of years. However, do these enhancements, along with higher KLAS scores, mean that Cerner should now be considered one of the industry’s leading products as Ovum suggests? Or, is the reality simply that Cerner is a whole lot better than it used to be?

I’m not able to make that determination from a one-hour overview. I’d love to hear opinions from others in the industry, especially from those using the product in their practice.

Here is what I can conclude: if you are hunting for a new EMR, Cerner Ambulatory is definitely worth a look, particularly if functionality is a bigger priority than aesthetics.

To round out the commentary on their ambulatory product, we asked Cerner to provide us with an opinion piece from one of their clients. Thanks to Dr. Randy Goldstein for sending us him impressions.

Opinion by:

Randy Goldstein, DO, Board Certified Pediatrician with an interest in Sports Medicine at the wellbody at Blue Valley Pediatrics. (www.wellbodykc.com), a Cerner Ambulatory client since 2006.

Background: Located in a suburb of Greater Kansas City, wellbody at Blue Valley Pediatrics is a pediatric clinic with a special interest in sports medicine. The practice opened four years ago with one clinician, one nurse, one administrator, and one x-ray technologist using the Cerner Specialty practice management and EHR clinical solutions of Cerner Ambulatory.

Starting with a dozen patients in November of 2006 and growing to a patient number nearing 3000, wellbody at Blue Valley Pediatrics has utilized Cerner to its fullest. Dr. Goldstein’s Cerner training team helped a “non-computer savvy” staff feel comfortable with the daily process of an EHR in about one week. Cerner tech support is a phone call or email away for answering questions, handling issues, understanding upgrades. And, possibly most importantly, confidence in a large, continually evolving CCHIT company, that is sure to be around as our business grows over the next 10-20 years.

Currently using Cerner Specialty Practice Management and Cerner Ambulatory EHR.

Three things I like about Cerner EHR PowerWorks are:

1. Efficient – The best way to explain my feeling of Cerner’s efficiency (compared to a paper system) is being able to have “Julie Smith’s chart” open by several different people at the same time. The doctor may be using the growth chart in the room with the patient and mother, the nurse might have the same chart open getting a precertification with a specialty lab for a study that is needed, the administrator may also have the chart open discussing the account with the third party insurance company to ensure the lab work is paid for, and the front desk may have the chart open getting a return appointment scheduled. There is not the situation of pulling one chart and having everyone waiting for it, there is no “lost chart” that is misplaced, there is no “dropped chart with papers on the ground,” and there is no office clutter- it’s electronic, always available and always easy to read- in an order that is understood by everyone in the office.

2. Portable – As a physician who travels to sports competitions during different times of the year and visits teams at their practice sites throughout the week, I am often asked questions from parents, coaches and athletes about various topics such as, “Why can’t he participate this weekend?,” “What did that xray look like?,” “Did her mono test turn out positive or can she go to the meet?” With a signed HIPAA form from the parent, I can pull up xrays, lab results and previous documents to show coaches, athletes and parents onsite, at an out of town competition or at a specialist’s office such as an orthopod.

3. Powerful – Cerner works! On a Sunday, while drinking coffee in my kitchen at home, I have refilled an allergy medication for patient #68, finished a document on patient #1974 with ear pain that I saw yesterday but didn’t quite complete the physical exam, looked over and electronically signed labs that came in from Lab Corp on three patients that I saw earlier in the week and replied to a message from my administrator on a question he had from a previous set of charges that needed clarification on patient #120. And I did all of this in 10 minutes, at home, with music on, while drinking a cup of coffee.

An item that, in my opinion, could be improved is a quicker way to see a diagnosis list.

Listed on the “Clinical Summary” page – which is the first page you see when opening a patient chart – is a friendly chart of recent medications ordered, vital signs and document forms used (such as “Pharyngitis form” or “Well-child form”). An improvement would be a list of ICD-9 codes used (billed/charged) in the last five to 10 visits so each clinician seeing the patient could quickly glance back and note why the patient had been visiting the doctor before starting today’s encounter.

An example would be a two year old patient with recurrent ear infections who might benefit from a visit to an ENT. The ear infection diagnosis is “hidden” within the previous three visits, which were for a well-child visit, a rash, and an upper respiratory infection. In order to see the ear infection diagnosis, the physician would need to open each encounter form on the clinical summary and read it (a time consuming effort.) Reviewing the encounters would show that:

· during the well child visit the patient was also diagnosed with an ear infection

· during the rash visit the patient was diagnosed for 1. contact dermatitis and 2. otitis media (again), and,

· during the third visit the patient was diagnosed for 1. acute pharyngitis, 2. wheeze and 3. otitis media (again).

While one previous ear infection being “overlooked” may be no big deal, if three ear infections in a short period of time is not realized, it could be a missed opportunity for a referral, a procedure, or another course of treatment.

In conclusion, I am 90% satisfied with Cerner Ambulatory solutions and the process in our office 90% of the time. That’s pretty good compared to my 30% satisfaction with the paper charting system at my previous clinic, which had inefficiencies with chart pulling and filing and misplaced charts. With paper charts there were too many lost charts, too many people needing to look to see the same chart, and no ability to remotely access patient information.

E-mail Inga.

News 1/6/11

Allina Hospitals & Clinics endorse Greenway’s PrimeSUITE EHR/PM solutions for affiliated regional providers. Key was Greenway’s ability to interface PrimeSUITE with Allina’s Epic acute care and ambulatory EMR.

The six-provider Cancer Centers of North Carolina–Asheville implements iKnowMed’s oncology-specific EMR. iKnowMed is a division of US Oncology, which is now owned by McKesson.

American Medical Group Association adds four new members to its board of directors.

More doctors are embracing Web-camera visits using services such as Skype. It’s unlikely to replace in-person visits, but providers are increasingly comfortable with the technology as an alternative for short follow-up visits or initial consults with long-distance patients. A big question mark is how patients can and should be billed for video appointments, which tend to be shorter than in-office visits, but longer than e-mail or text interactions. I suspect concierge practices might be the among the early adopters since most of those providers charge patients a flat monthly fee for all visits.

AT&T adds MedApps’ products to its ForHealth portfolio of offerings. AT&T will provide 3G connectivity to the MedApps remote monitoring solution suite and will co-sell MedApps’ remote care monitoring hub and enterprise back-end solutions.

Providers participating in the CentraState Healthcare System (PA) HIE will have an option to use the MobileMD’s EMR Light offering. CentraState is deploying MobileMD products across its medical community and will configure, manage, and support CentraState’s HIE technologies.

MedicalEdge Healthcare Group becomes part of Texas Health Resources in what is thought to be the second largest transaction of its kind. MedicalEdge includes 420 physicians and 2,300 employees. In a side deal, THR also acquires PhysServe, MedicalEdge’s MSO, and plans to sell PhysServe to THR’s joint venture partner, MedSynergies. Despite predictions that the acquisition will improve patient care, you can be assured the primary objective is to increase THR’s healthcare footprint and align physicians for a future ACO.

Other recent deals involving hospitals purchasing practices:

• Mount Nittany Medical Center (PA) absorbs the 51-physician Centre Medical and Surgical Associates
• The Tampa Bay Heart Institute at Northside Hospital acquires the 16-physician Heart and Vascular Institute of Florida South
• Saint Joseph Mercy Health System buys Michigan Heart, a practice with 33 cardiologists and 10 nurse practitioners and physician assistants
• WakeMed Health & Hospitals (NC) adds three practice and a total of 13 physicians.

In doing a bit of Web surfing today, I noticed that HIStalk sponsor Kareo is offering a couple of free webinars this month on how physicians can make medical billing easier and increase profitability. Details here.

I also see Navicure has a free guide for physicians preparing for the 5010 transition. Yikes. The 5010 deadline is officially less than a year away. Navicure is also hosting a webinar January 13th to discuss 2011 reimbursement and the challenges and opportunities for medical practices.

An internal medicine physician completes a review of Motion J3500 tablet, which he was considering for his practice. He seems to know his stuff, having  previously used other Motion devices, as well as the Fujitsu Lifebook, Lenova X61, and HP TouchSmart tm2. His bottom line: the unit is powerful and “has no competition” if you want to use a tablet that can serve as a desktop replacement. However, a fully loaded unit runs over $4,000, is a bit heavy at nearly four pounds, lacks a forward-facing camera, and needs more external control options. In addition, the doctor found he only got 2:45 of use on two fully charged batteries. He concludes by saying he’ll wait for the introduction of other Windows 7 touch screen slates before making a purchase.

E-mail Inga.