March 1, 2011
AdvancedMD sale to ADP shows new side of EMR consolidation
Written by: Neil Versel
Here’s an interesting one from the world of mergers and acquisitions: Human resources and payroll services and firm Automatic Data Processing (ADP) announced Tuesday that it has purchased EMR and practice management systems vendor AdvancedMD for an undisclosed sum.
I’d say this is part of the expected consolidation that federally sanctioned certification was supposed to bring to the market, except that ADP’s only experience in healthcare to date has been in providing HR, payroll and benefits management services to approximately 13,500 physician practices. Those are the same types of services ADP offers to any business, so the AdvancedMD purchase represents uncharted territory for the company. ADP now bills itself as “uniquely positioned as an integrated, single-source provider of Medical Practice Optimization,” whatever that means.
Interestingly, I learned at HIMSS last week that at least a couple of new EMR vendors had spent tens thousands of dollars developing systems then getting products certified, but still hadn’t found or even looked very far for customers. They were at HIMSS to find marketing partners.
Right now, the EMR market doesn’t seem to be consolidating into the hands of a few, large vendors, but actually branching out. As of this evening, ONC’s Certified Health IT Products List includes 298 ambulatory systems and 129 inpatient products. That’s greater than 400 total, or about a third more than the last time I looked back in December. The market may actually be expanding faster than it’s consolidating. The ADP acquisition of AdvancedMD represents a different kind of consolidation, one with a company outside healthcare repositioning itself as a health IT vendor.
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5 responses to "AdvancedMD sale to ADP shows new side of EMR consolidation"
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Definitely a major switch when it comes to consolidation. This will be interesting to watch play out. I guess it makes sense that transactions like this happen. With 300+ EMR and EHR vendors and still a ton of market share available for the taking, we’re probably going to see a lot more companies enter the healthcare IT world.
I guess we need to begin looking at the other market segments that have ongoing relationships with physicians. Payroll and HR is one and I certainly wouldn’t be surprised to hear of Paychex hooking up with or acquiring and EHR Vendor soon.
The large labs seem to be getting into the EMR business as well so I wonder who’s next?
Steve, I think this also shows that some are paying attention to the larger picture, namely that 5010 transactions are coming sooner than a lot of people think. The deadline for switching is Jan. 1, 2012.
We’re definitely going to see stuff from different market segments. The lab angle is an interesting one. We definitely know where Quest is going with MedPlus and Care360. I haven’t heard anything from LabCorp. Anyone know what they’re doing as far as EMR?
[...] just acquired is pretty funny. Although, Intuit Health acquiring an EMR vendor would be a similar new EMR consolidation as Neil Versel called [...]