Allscripts Aligns with Quicken

Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc. (MDRX - Analyst Report) recently entered in an alliance with Intuit Inc. (INTU - Snapshot Report), a leading provider of business and financial management solutions, to offer Quicken Health Bill Pay.

This is the first online service that integrates with Allscripts' practice management and revenue cycle management solutions. As the name indicates, the system helps explain patients their medical bills and enable them to pay online while helping physicians get paid faster.

Quicken Health Bill Pay alerts patients more quickly that a payment is due. The system displays how the amount due was calculated in simple mathematics and provides accurate data. The system quickens the patient bill payment process by an average of 18 days compared to the traditional way of using paper check. It also reduces the cost of collection incurred in the traditional process.

It’s been observed that many physician practices write off roughly 50% of their patient payments as bad debt. Of this, approximately 40% of patients don’t pay their bills because either they don’t understand them or they doubt the integrity of the amount provided in the bill. This resulted in huge loss to these physicians’ practices. Quicken Health Bill Pay eliminates all these limitations.

The electronic payment facility has huge potential. It’s been estimated that the direct out-of-pocket payments from patients to providers are expected to total $660 billion by 2013.

We think that the new system will be widely accepted by physicians. This will boost demand for the new product and will expand Allscripts’ top-line.

Libertyville, IL-based Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc. is a leading provider of clinical software and information solutions for physicians. In Oct. 2008, Allscripts merged with Misys Plc, a global applications software and services company, to form Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions, Inc.

Allscripts faces strong competition from Cerner Corporation (CERN - Analyst Report), Quality Systems Inc. (QSII - Analyst Report) and MedAssets Inc. (MDAS - Snapshot Report). Based on the first quarter of fiscal 2010, we have assigned a ‘Neutral’ recommendation to Allscripts’ stock.

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