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Quality Systems Subsidiary Offers EHR Solutions to HMC/CAH

NextGen Healthcare Information Systems, LLC – a wholly owned subsidiary of Quality Systems Inc. (QSII) – revealed that it has entered an agreement to provide its NextGen Inpatient Clinicals, NextGen Lab and NextGen Patient Portal Electronic Health Record ("EHR") solutions to HMC/CAH Consolidated, Inc. Shares of the company upped 1.3% in the last trading session following the announcement.

HMC/CAH is a holding company which operates a number of acute care hospitals in rural areas by acquiring them. So far, it has acquired 12 hospitals certified as Critical Access Hospitals located in Kansas, Missouri, Tennessee and North Carolina.

HMC/CAH has already deployed NextGen solutions into five of its Critical Access Hospitals. The latest agreement will deploy the solutions into another five hospitals, bringing a total of 10 out of its 12 hospitals under the NextGen Healthcare platform.

The five hospitals under the new agreement includes Horton Community Hospital, Horton; Hillsboro Community Medical Center, Hillsboro; and Oswego Medical Center, Oswego – all based in Kansas, and Yadkin Valley Community Hospital, Yadkinville and Washington County Hospital, Plymouth – both based in North Carolina.

NextGen Inpatient Clinicals

NextGen Inpatient Clinicals is an interoperable and cost-effective EHR solution that helps in the automation of medical processes and improvement of organizational efficiencies in order to provide better care for patients.

NextGen Inpatient Clinicals’ mobile-enabled platform helps initiate widespread communication and reduces both errors and time-to-chart. It facilitates electronic charting at the point-of-care, promotes interdisciplinary documentation and includes a clinical data repository for customizable and comprehensive reporting. With these, it provides the capabilities to meet Meaningful Use (MU) requirements for both Stage 1 and Stage 2.

Meaningful Use (MU)

Meaningful Use implies the use of EHR and related technology within a healthcare organization. In order to become eligible for payments from the federal government under either the Medicare EHR Incentive Program or the Medicaid EHR Incentive Program, a healthcare provider needs to meet Meaningful Use criteria.

As per HMC/CAH, five of its previously deployed NextGen solutions Critical Access Hospitals have already received Meaningful Use incentive payments from the government. With the addition of another five hospitals under the new contract, the company will make them eligible for Meaningful Use incentive payments.

Recent Development

Recently, Quality Systems revealed that NextGen Healthcare has partnered with software and consulting services provider 3M Health Information Systems to offer the latter’s web-based ICD-10 Education Program across the industry.

ICD-10 is the 10th revision of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems (:ICD). It is a medical classification list provided by the World Health Organization (:WHO) and codes for diseases, signs and symptoms, unusual findings, complaints, social circumstances, and external causes of injury or diseases.

Outlook

Despite sluggish growth, revenues of Quality Systems continue to be largely boosted by the strength of the NextGen subsidiary. The NextGen Ambulatory EHR 5.8 and NextGen Practice Management 5.8 will continue to help the company’s clients meet ICD-10 and Meaningful Use Stage 2 requirements.

Currently, Quality Systems retains a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell). Some better-ranked stocks in the broader healthcare sector include Hospira Inc. (HSP), OraSure Technologies, Inc. (OSUR), Wright Medical Group Inc. (WMGI). All of them carry a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy).

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