Dive Brief:
- Allscripts announced Thursday it will acquire HealthGrid for $60 million to expand its patient engagement platform.
- The Chicago-based company reported $304 million in bookings during the first quarter of 2018, up from $286 million in the same time period last year.
- Revenue was also up in the first quarter of 2018. Allscripts reported $514 million in revenue for the period, a 24% increase year-over-year. The company affirmed its financial outlook for the year.
Dive Insight:
Allscripts has been on a shopping spree as it builds out its platform, a necessary move for health IT vendors as they react to market needs.
Earlier this year, the company agreed to acquire cloud-based EHR company Practice Fusion for $100 million. The acquisition was done to give Allscripts a larger presence in outpatient settings.
Allscripts CEO Paul Black on an earnings call said the company will "tightly integrate" HealthGrid's functions to Allscripts' FollowMyHealth patient engagement platform. Black said value-based care, combined with modest usage of patient portals, is driving the need to approach patient engagement tools.
"Since most of our EHR clients use FollowMyHealth today, we see a meaningful opportunity to grow with this expanded offering," Black said on the call.
Allscripts' revenue and bookings are encouraging in a largely mixed-bag quarter for health IT vendors.
Cerner increased bookings and revenue in the first quarter, but revenue was weaker than expected. The company cut its 2018 guidance. Athenahealth saw an increase in revenue but a decline in bookings.
Each of the companies are retrofitting and adding on apps and tools to adapt to the new needs of customers.
Analysts are split on the future of the health IT industry.
"To be successful in this new environment, providers will need the ability to capture, aggregate, analyze and act on data," Sean Dodge and David Windley, analysts at Jefferies, wrote in an note last week. "More sophisticated HCIT [healthcare IT] infrastructures are required to support this, meaning providers that have put an EHR in place are not done spending on HCIT, rather they are just beginning."
David Larsen, a Leerink analyst, wrote in a Thursday note on Cerner that the market demands for core EHR products are weakening and ancillary products pose a challenging environment.