WebMD to Acquire Subimo
New York-based WebMD Health Corp. is acquiring Chicago-based Subimo, LLC — a provider of healthcare decision-support applications to large employers, health plans and financial institutions — for $60 million.
The acquisition will see WebMD combine its private health and benefits portals with Subimo's online health applications. WebMD also states that the acquisition will allow it to better address the emerging consumer-driven health plan market.
McKesson Acquires Per-Se
In a deal valued at $1.8 billion, San Francisco-based McKesson and Atlanta-based Per-Se have signed an agreement under which McKesson will acquire financial and administrative company Per-Se.
Terms of the agreement include McKesson acquiring all outstanding shares of Per-Se for $28 per share.
The acquisition extends McKesson's market penetration, adding the nation's largest electronic pharmacy network with connections between approximately 90 percent of U.S. retail pharmacies and other business partners.
The deal also adds Per-Se's customer base of physicians — about 100,000 in small practices and 17,000 affiliated with hospitals — plus 3,000 hospitals and 50,000 retail pharmacies, according to the company's news release.
The deal is expected to close in Q1 2007.
Medsphere Signs Government Contract
Aliso Viejo, Calif.-based Medsphere Systems Corporation, a provider of open source-based electronic health record (EHR) systems and services, has inked a contract to expand deployment of its EHR technology at the hospitals and health centers operated by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services' Indian Health Service (IHS).
The agency currently has Medsphere-powered EHR installations at 67 facilities, and plans to roll out the system to 40 additional sites over the year.
The agreement includes a license for Medsphere software along with implementation, training, development and support services. Medsphere's EHR functionality and graphical user interface enable authorized IHS clinicians to have point-of-service access to patient information stored in the agency's electronic Resource and Patient Management System.
ONCHIT and Governors Form e-Health Alliance
The Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the National Coordinator of Health Information Technology has entered into a one-year $1.99 million contract with the National Governors Association's Center for Best Practices to establish the State Alliance for e-Health.
The alliance will include health IT experts, industry experts, and representatives of consumers, state and federal governments.
The alliance plans to tackle state-level:
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privacy and security issues,
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practice of medicine barriers, and
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health information organization issues in governance, sustainable financial models, and the role of payers and integration of public health and benefit programs.
Teaming Up for Tracking
Mountain View, Calif.-based Coral8 Inc., a provider of complex event processing (CEP) software, and Sunnyvale, Calif.-based SenseIQ Inc., a provider of real-time asset visibility application software for hospitals, have formed a strategic OEM partnership.
The new agreement will see SenseIQ embed the Coral8 Engine inside the SenseIQ InSight solution for real-time processing, aggregation and correlation of sensor reads and events.
The SenseIQ InSight solution helps hospitals to locate, track and monitor equipment, staff, patients and medicines in real-time, according to the companies. The SenseIQ InSight solution will embed the Coral8 engine to run application-defined continuous queries that will aggregate and correlate sensor events, reference and historical data in real-time.
