Health IT Law Blog : Health IT Law Blog : Post & Schell: Law Firm : HIT & Electronic Health Records

The HITECH Act added over $27 billion to an industry whose publicly trading companies' market cap is below that, around $25 billion.  Such dramatic expansion of the industry will likely lead to significant consolidation among HIT vendors. We have already seen a merger between Eclypsis and Allscripts this summer (which became final last month); and now Cerner, another leading HIT vendor, entered into a partnership with MedAssets, Inc., a company that has specialized Internet-based financial improvement systems.  Via the Journal:

As that funding makes its way to health-care IT companies, it's likely to necessitate a lot more consolidation in an industry that's currently very fragmented. For instance, hospitals are not only looking to reduce the
number of different IT systems they use in-house, they also want more seamless ways of connecting to doctors' offices and insurers.

"We're at the beginning of the single fastest transformation of any industry in U.S. history," said Glen Tullman, chief executive of the health-care IT company Allscripts Healthcare Solutions Inc. (MDRX). <...> Tullman said he expects a lot more deals to come in the industry. He said that some of that consolidation will likely take place among the companies that provide IT systems to hospitals, a list that
includes Allscripts, privately held Epic Systems Corp., General Electric Co. (GE), Cerner, Germany-based Siemens AG (SI), McKesson Corp. (MCK) and privately held Medical Information Technology Inc., commonly known as Meditech. Tullman declined to comment on what companies he expects to make deals.

You can read more at the Wall Street Journal web site here. 

"Health-Care IT Sector Shaking Up As Medical World Goes Digital," Wall Street Journal (October 15, 2010).

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Allscripts and Eclipsys announced a $1.3 billion merger, which some analysts tout as a match "made in heaven" due to Allscripts's strength in the ambulatory space and Eclipsys's strength on the acute side.  The merger is expected to be completed in four to six months; the combined company will have around 5,500 employees.  The merger will also pose some challenges for the combined entity, with some customers worrying that the merger will distract management from dealing with existing issues.  However, analysts believe that Allscripts's smooth merger with Misys in 2008 is a good sign that this merger with Eclipsys will succeed.

Both companies are looking to capitalize on the projected exponential growth in adoption of health IT, in part due to the incentives created by ARRA.  According to the Congressional Budget Office, adoption of electronic health records by physician practices is expected to increase from 12% in 2011 to 90% by 2019. 

This merger is yet another sign of future consolidation in the healthcare industry, both on the vendor side, and on the provider side, as enterprises try to minimize costs and maximize revenue in the ever-changing and often uncertain business environment.

"Allscripts-Eclipsys: 'A match made in heaven' - mostly," Healthcare IT News (June 10, 2010).

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The last few weeks saw a tremendous amount of activity in the health IT market.  Dell and Xerox were among the companies trying to capitalize on opportunities created by the ARRA incentives and certain market trends, including high demand for HIT products due to the ongoing digitization of the industry and, more generally, the expanding healthcare needs of an aging population in the United States.

Dell is quickly establishing itself as a major player in health IT.  In April 2009, Dell aligned itself with Wal-Mart and eClinical Works to supply hardware for Wal-Mart's new EHR system.  Last month, Dell rolled out its own EHR system aimed at physicians affiliated with hospital practices, with Tufts Medical Center and Memorial Hermann Health Care System among the early adopters. 

Even more significantly, on September 21, 2009, Dell announced its plans to acquire the health IT vendor Perot Systems Corp. for $3.9 billion.  Perot is a major player in the healthcare industry:  about half of Perot's $2.8 billion in annual revenue comes from the healthcare market; and as much as half of the hospitals that outsource their IT are Perot clients.   Perot runs over 3,000 healthcare applications for its clients, though the company does not have a preferred provider arrangement with a specific application vendor.

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