Dive Brief:
- "I've taken the position there is no benefit by discussing the past," eClinicalWorks CEO Girish Navani told Healthcare Dive last week regarding news earlier this year that the EHR vendor paid $155 million to settle False Claims Act allegations. "Nobody gains," he added.
- Navani stated it's time to move forward but added the company has implemented a tighter compliance program.
- Last week, the company announced a strong sales Q2, adding over 3,000 providers to its networks. The company also announced revenues reaching $120 million across its EHR, population health and patient engagement market segments.
Dive Insight:
While the settlement news was released at the end of May, eClinicalWorks stated June was its strongest sales month to date in 2017, with 1,000 providers purchasing it's EHR tool last month.
The company also announced some of the H1 growth is at the cost of its competitors, stating 70% of eClinicalWorks' new providers switched from different EHRs.
Navani believes this growth is sparked by providers moving from on-premise deployment to cloud-based EHRs. "Cloud to me is not just about hosting remotely," Navani told Healthcare Dive. "It's about a platform that allows collaboration between users and patients and doctors. That's broadly the transition we've seen, and not just in this quarter."
Navani also commented on the shift in the health IT industry itself as he stated he believes it's not adequate in 2017 to focus on a singular offering. "You need the entire patient side," he said, noting vendors should be thinking of offering everything from kiosks, online booking, patient messaging and smartphone apps for managing patient conditions.
Legacy EHR systems have been switching up their offerings recently. For example, Epic noted it will be entering smaller provider markets while athenahealth is looking toward creating a more networked approach for its customers.
Uncertainty coming out of Washington may have affected health IT vendor sales in the beginning of the year. Though the uncertainty hasn't slowed down per se, both eClinicalWorks and athenahealth's Q2 sales show providers may be moving forward with health IT purchasing to fit their needs.
As the year continues and the digital health space matures, the war between the EHR competitors could be closely watched as they move to new services and offerings.