Allscripts Adds HealthGrid to Growing Engagement Portfolio

Allscripts, one of the largest electronic health records (EHR) providers in the market, continues to expand its reach through acquisition. According to a Securities and Exchange Commission filing, it’s buying patient engagement company HealthGrid for $60 million. The transaction is expected to be completed shortly.

Launched in 2014, HealthGrid offers an enterprise suite of engagement tools that Allscripts will integrate into its existing FollowMyHealth platform. The EHR vendor said in its official announcement that a growing industrywide emphasis on value-based care has increased the need for integrated IT tools. Solutions like patient portals are only used in a minority of practices, and the company believes FollowMyHealth can help providers give their patients the same relevant health information without requiring them to sign up for a portal.

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The purchase “further drives Allscripts strategy to offer the most comprehensive patient engagement solutions and enable providers to stay connected with their patients in pre-care, point-of-care and post-care settings,” according to the announcement.

FollowMyHealth is meant to be EHR-agnostic, and HealthGrid also allows communication between providers in a patient’s care team. According to a recent release from the company, it has over 15,000 provider clients in more than 350 practices across the country.

“Engaging consumers in their own health is critical to achieving a healthier tomorrow, and enabling meaningful connections between patients and providers is a crucial piece of fostering successful healthcare delivery,” Jim Hewitt, executive vice president of solutions development at Allscripts, said in a statement. “It’s a role Allscripts is proud to play.”

The deal will be Allscripts’ second major purchase already in 2018. In early January, it purchased smaller EHR vendor Practice Fusion, which offers an affordable, cloud-based EHR platform primarily used by smaller practices. Valued at over $1 billion just years before, Allscripts bought the company for about $100 million.

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