Union of affordable EHR and comprehensive RCM providers yields most complete healthcare IT system available via subscription service payment model.

St. Louis, MO, and Carlsbad, CA—Medsphere Systems Corporation and Stockell Healthcare Systems today announced an agreement to merge the two companies, uniting under one banner the leading subscription-based electronic health record (EHR) system and a suite of proven revenue cycle management (RCM) tools. The transaction is expected to officially close later this month. Upon closing, Stockell will become a division of Medsphere and continue to use the Stockell name. Medsphere and Stockell are well acquainted through previous implementations but will now work together even more closely.

For Medsphere and Stockell, the future is now and that future is in the cloud. This past summer Medsphere initiated the company’s cloud strategy starting with Southern Inyo Hospital and continuing that delivery model for other clients. Stockell provides InsightCS^© and related services to clients via its RCM Cloud^©hosted service.

“We’ve collaborated several times on previous implementations, so this really seemed like a natural and very beneficial evolution of the relationship,” said Medsphere President and CEO Irv Lichtenwald. “The integration of OpenVista clinicals and InsightCS revenue cycle has already created a system that dramatically improves operational efficiency and the bottom line for our clients. We’re confident that subscription-based pricing and improved billing through an integrated RCM system will mitigate the financial impact of a large healthcare IT purchase.”

Medsphere’s OpenVista EHR was initially derived from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs proven VistA solution. Since its founding, Medsphere has systematically reduced dependence on VistA by significantly enhancing the overall solution using modern technologies, including mobility, improved patient documentation, population health and behavioral health modules, and many more functional and foundational improvements.

Stockell’s InsightCS system features a full menu of solution options for managing key revenue cycle touch points, including patient engagement, registration, scheduling, billing, collections, business analytics and reporting. Hospitals and behavioral healthcare providers can significantly cut IT infrastructure and support costs, close functional gaps in processes, reduce costs to collect, maximize upfront self-pay collections, and provide better, more effective patient service.   

“Every healthcare IT company is looking to fill gaps in functionality, and with this union both Stockell and Medsphere become whole,” said Stockell Founder and CEO Rick Stockell. “Both divisions continue to develop and enhance the overall system, of course, but the combination of comprehensiveness and affordability we can now offer hospitals is exciting and unique. I see stories every day about hospitals laying people off because of an EHR purchase. We are offering exactly the contrary experience, and we’re confident hospital leaders will see the benefit quite clearly.”

The union with Stockell is only Medsphere’s most recent expansion. In June of last year Medsphere merged with ambulatory healthcare IT solutions provider ChartLogic. In the spring of 2015 the company joined forces with Phoenix Health Systems, which according to recent surveys conducted by Black Book Research, is the top-rated, non-EHR centric hospital IT outsourcing company.

About Stockell Healthcare Systems

Formed in 1986 to develop a wide range of healthcare solutions, Stockell Healthcare Systems soon realized there was not a single, solid end-to-end revenue cycle management (patient access and patient accounting) solution available that could keep pace with rapid changes in healthcare. In 1995, the company formally introduced InsightCS® as a patient accounting and billing solution to fill that gap. The goal since has been to expand on this platform to provide a complete revenue cycle management solution for healthcare providers seeking robust universal (inpatient, outpatient and physician) patient and insurance billing and collections.

Today, Stockell Healthcare Systems is providing its RCM Cloud® solutions and services, fully leveraging the maturity of InsightCS combined with operational advantages of the cloud, to a wide range of clients including hospitals, integrated delivery networks (IDNs), and behavioral healthcare providers across the United States and abroad.