ALPHARETTA, GA – Less than a year after merging with its biggest competitor, HealthPort has filed plans for a $100 million initial public offering of stock.
In its filing Monday with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, the Alpharetta, Ga.-based healthcare IT provider indicated the market is right for growth in the release of information (ROI) services outsourcing field – a market in which company officials say they have a 20 percent share. The company cited as proof the increasing complexity of federal initiatives to control rising healthcare costs, advancements in information technology and the continued growth in volume of electronic health records.
The company has not given a timetable for the IPO or a potential initial stock price.
Company officials are likely looking for the same type of success recently encountered by Nashville-based Emdeon, which raised $365.7 million – selling 2 million more shares then expected – in going public this past week. And while only 21 companies have launched IPOs so far this year, far below the hundreds of companies that launched IPOs just a few years ago, the presence of big names like Dole Food, Hyatt Hotels and Mirion Technologies in recent filings has given rise to speculation that the market is on the upswing.
Formed in 2007 through the merger of Smart Document Solutions and Companion Technologies, HealthPort offers revenue cycle management, electronic medical record, document management, practice management, onsite conversion release-of-information and healthcare consulting services. Last September the company joined forces with Burlington, Mass.-based ChartOne, which focuses on ROI technology and electronic health record products through its eWebHealth division, providing hospitals with both point-of-care and legal EHRs for clinical and revenue cycle management applications.
The combined company offers a product line that includes ROI technology, electronic document and medical records management, coding services, recovery audit contractor (RAC) services, RCM, cancer registry services and interim health management and consulting.
The company’s principal shareholder is ABRY Partners, LLC, a Boston-based private equity firm.
Deutsch Bank Securities and William Blair & Co. are handling the offering. If the IPO is deemed successful, the company will trade on the Nasdaq under the symbol ‘HPRT.’
The company reports serving 10,000 hospitals and 27,000 physicians. For the six months that ended June 30, the company reported revenues of $126.8 million, up 51.3 percent over the same period the in 2008, but had a net loss of $6.8 million.
