Allscripts-Misys Execs Bullish on EMR

Senior managers at Allscripts-Misys Healthcare Solutions are buying back shares of their company, believing it stands poised to benefit from a rapidly expanding US market for its flagship electronic medical record.

“Health care is one of the last industries on the planet to use information technology to improve quality,” Executive Chairman Michael Lawrie told the Wall Street Journal. 

Last week Lawrie paid $356,300 for 70,000 shares of his company. Joining him in the buyback were Chief Executive Glenn Tullman, Director Michael Kluger, and the President of Professional Solutions, Roger Davenport. They purchased 100,000 shares, 10,000 shares and 50,000 shares respectively.

Just last month, the board of Chicago-based Allscripts signed off on a merger with London-based Misys Healthcare to form the new entity. Misys had specialized in back-end functions such as billing, patient registration and scheduling. Allscripts had focused on the clinical medical record. The combined entity will have quarterly revenues approximating $400 million.

The activity comes days after the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced it will provide bonus payments of up to 2% to physicians that e-prescribe drugs for Medicare patients.

Allscripts estimates that 25% of US physicians use electronic health records right now, and that utilization should double in 2 years.

The Allscripts web site asserts that 150,000 physicians, 700 hospitals and thousands of other healthcare providers in clinics, post-acute care facilities, and homecare agencies utilize Allscripts solutions.

President elect Obama supports the use of EMRs and related technologies that can purportedly improve quality and control costs.

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