Merge Receives EHR Certification - Analyst Blog
October 17 2011 - 5:30AM
Zacks
Recently, the leading developer of
healthcare information software solutions, Merge
Healthcare (MRGE) received the ‘Meaningful Use’ stamp from
the federal government for its Merge RIS v7.0. The product enables
healthcare providers to efficiently record patient details.
With this complete Electronic
Health Record (EHR) Ambulatory certification, RIS v7.0 has emerged
as the industry’s leading radiology information system (RIS). With
RIS v7.0, the users can now utilize a single product for
radiology-specific workflow to qualify for up to $44,000 in funding
under the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical
Health (HITECH) Act.
The overall US health IT (HIT)
market witnessed a drastic change in February 2009 with the passing
of the HITECH Act, as a part of the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA), which is an economic stimulus bill. The
ARRA provision includes $20 billion in incentives. Within that,
radiologists using certified EHRs are eligible for receiving
rewards of approximately $1.5 billion.
As per estimates, the US HIT
market, valued at $7.6 billion in 2010, is expected to grow to $9.6
billion by 2014. The US HIT market is gradually adopting EHRs to
meet HITECH funding requirements. Merge is expected to target this
market given its imaging interoperability platform. In such a
scenario, our recommendation could go wrong. Earlier, in September,
Merge got the complete EHR Ambulatory certification for its
OrthoEMR v4.0 that enables healthcare providers to efficiently
record patient details.
However, in recent years, medicare
reimbursement for advanced medical imaging has
declined significantly. At the beginning of 2011, the health
care reform law, Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
(PPACA), reduced reimbursements for advanced imaging by mandating
an equipment utilization rate of 75%, thereby increasing the
multiple procedural reductions up to 50% from 25%.
Further, the Centers for Medicare
and Medicaid Services (CMS) implemented additional reimbursement
changes using the Physician Payment Information Survey (PPIS) data,
resulting in further reimbursements cuts in the range of 30%-40%
for advanced modalities by 2013.
Although Merge reported revenue
growth during the second quarter 2011, the general slowdown in
hospital spending, low demand for imaging equipment and related
technology due to global credit crisis and macroeconomic factors
could result in lower product sales. This could negatively affect
hospital and imaging clinic revenue, which in turn could impact the
demand for imaging-related software and services offered by Merge.
Furthermore, the presence of major players like General
Electric (GE) and McKesson Corporation
(MCK) has made the diagnostic imaging market highly
competitive.
GENL ELECTRIC (GE): Free Stock Analysis Report
MCKESSON CORP (MCK): Free Stock Analysis Report
MERGE HEALTHCAR (MRGE): Free Stock Analysis Report
Zacks Investment Research
Mirage Energy (PK) (USOTC:MRGE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jun 2024 to Jul 2024
Mirage Energy (PK) (USOTC:MRGE)
Historical Stock Chart
From Jul 2023 to Jul 2024