CHICAGO – Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions has been busy lately.

Aside from taking part in two recently announced e-prescribing initiatives in Iowa and Vermont, the Chicago-based company has signed contracts to provide its electronic health record and practice management technology to thousands of physicians in four states. In addition, the company announced two partnerships designed to improve the payment process for physicians and their patients.

Allscripts announced in September agreements with Baptist Memorial Health Care in Memphis, Tenn., covering 65 employed physicians and 3,100 independent physicians in the 15-hospital system serving Tennessee, Arkansas and Mississippi; and the West Penn Allegheny Health System, covering six hospitals and 92 physician practices in and around Pittsburgh.

The key to both deals is the adoption of electronic medical records by physicians, a component of the government’s efforts to reform healthcare and a stated goal of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, which offers funding to physicians adopting EMRs and demonstrating meaningful use of IT. 

“An effective electronic health record is critical to maximizing both the efficiency and coordination of our clinical operations across the system and to providing the highest quality of care for our patients,” said David Chuirazzi, MD, an emergency medicine physician at Allegheny General Hospital and medical director of West Penn Allegheny’s electronic medical record initiatives.

“West Penn’s decision to provide preferred status to Allscripts for our clinical solutions across its enterprise is significant because it demonstrates how leading healthcare systems will address the integrated clinical care required in the future and how they are building an interconnected system of health today – something that we believe is not only compelling but necessary to advance our national healthcare objectives,” added Glen Tullman, Allscripts’ chief executive officer.

In October, Allscripts announced partnerships with Intuit, the Mountain View, Calif.-based developer of Quicken software, to launch Quicken Health Bill Pay and integrate it with Allscripts’ physician practice management and revenue cycle management products. Allscripts then joined with Minneapolis-based mPay Gateway to make mPay’s point-of-care payment technology available to Allscripts clients seeking to improve the patient payment process in the office.

Both deals focus on the use of technology to help patients understand and review their bills and pay their portion online or with a credit card.

“When patients have the knowledge and confidence that a bill is correct, payments are made faster and billing managers spend less time, money and effort repeatedly sending paper statements, answering questions and calling patients about payments due,” said Peter Karpas, president and division general manager of Intuit’s Quicken Health Group. “With Quicken Health Bill Pay, Allscripts can offer its clients the unique ability to present absolutely clear bills and the 24/7 convenience of receiving fully protected online payments.”

“Customers using Allscripts Patient Payment Assurance now have the opportunity to decrease administrative hassles typically associated with patient payments,” added Lee Shapiro, president of Allscripts.

“This technology allows providers to calculate the patient responsibility and obtain payment authorization before the patient leaves the office. This eliminates billing hassles and ultimately enhances the provider-patient relationship,” he added.