BURLINGTON, Mass., – September 27, 2012 – Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) announced today that it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Quantim, the Health Information Management (HIM) business of QuadraMed, a provider of leading information technology solutions for the healthcare industry. Working closely with industry partners, including electronic healthcare record (EHR) providers, Nuance and Quantim will ease healthcare providers’ transition to ICD-10, while preserving clinician productivity and document workflows and, most importantly, ensuring the quality of patient care.
Quantim provides hospitals and healthcare organizations with software and services that maximize HIM professionals’ productivity while ensuring appropriate financial reimbursement to the institution. With the government-mandated transition from ICD-9 to ICD-10 codes, healthcare providers face unprecedented complexity in their clinical documentation and coding strategies. ICD codes, which serve as the foundation for financial reimbursement, are set to increase from 17,000 diagnostic and procedural codes today to more than 155,000 codes over the next two years. Every healthcare provider in the U.S. is affected by this change, and Nuance, together with Quantim, will assist customers through this critical transition and through future clinical documentation and coding challenges.
The integration of Nuance’s clinical language understanding (CLU) technology with Quantim’s computer-assisted coding (CAC) solution will fuel a more efficient coding workflow and speed related reimbursement. An automated, integrated coding solution will support clinician productivity during the transition to ICD-10 for providers and preserve document workflows and the quality of care.
“Nuance has a track record of delivering disruptive innovations in healthcare, particularly when it comes to helping providers overcome major challenges like ICD-10,” said Janet Dillione, executive vice president and general manager, Nuance Healthcare. “We are excited to welcome the Quantim customers and staff to the Nuance team, and look forward to working together to create an innovative solution to help providers address critical productivity and reimbursement challenges associated with clinical documentation and coding.”
Nuance plans to deliver CLU-powered CAC solutions quickly into the market within Quantim's integrated, web-based platform to support a more efficient transition to ICD-10 and deliver better financial results for customers. These solutions will:
- Bridge the capture of clinical information with natural language processing (NLP)-driven coding and compliance, ultimately shortening the time between patient care and appropriate reimbursement – driving to the industry goal of concurrent coding.
- Streamline clinical documentation improvement (CDI) and support CDI and coding specialists within a single platform to decrease the time spent on physician follow-up when additional specific patient details are needed to properly code the care provided; and
- Integrate Nuance’s CLU technology to aid coders directly by providing them with automated prompts that will assist them in ensuring compliance and adjusting to the increased ICD-10 code base.
“The acquisition of QuadraMed’s HIM business is a natural extension of Nuance’s strategy to transform the clinical documentation and revenue cycle processes,” said Duncan James, chief executive officer, QuadraMed. “We are enthusiastic about the opportunity this acquisition provides for our Quantim clients and employees who will benefit from the value of Nuance’s vision and innovative technology.”
For more information about this announcement and the benefits it will bring to healthcare provider organizations, please visit: http://www.nuance.com/for-healthcare/healthcare-announcement-quantim/index.htm
