Bill Hefley, MD, uses MedEvolve’s mobile phone application Mobi to check medical records in the office while at the hospital.

“I thought it would be better to have a physician practice management system designed by physicians for physicians,” Hefley said. “I wanted to provide a better product and better service with a company that would stand by their products.”

Now, in 2011, MedEvolve serves 10,000 customers around the country. The company has offices in Little Rock and Memphis, Tenn., and strategic relationships with companies nationwide.

Services include electronic medical records (EMR), practice management software, eligibility verification, electronic prescribing, and revenue cycle management for billing and collection. There is also a mobile phone application, Mobi, which allows doctors to connect to the office remotely through a mobile phone device or an iPad. This is for the  doctor or office manager on the go who wants to connect with the office to access records.

MedEvolve can provide one or all the services designed to focus on practice profitability and efficiency. 

“MedEvolve is a complete solution partner that streamlines the medical practice and improves the patient encounter experience by providing IT solutions and services necessary to manage financial and clinical operations of the medical practice” Hefley said.

The federal government has allocated approximately $20 billion in stimulus money to encourage physicians to adopt EMR. That amounts to about $44,000 per physician.

“The government is interested in computerizing physician records,” Hefley said. “They want EMR that will increase the quality of healthcare and also, over time, lower the cost of healthcare. Records have to meet certain criteria, one being interoperability. For example, if a patient has medical records in Little Rock, is traveling in Colorado and has a heart attack, the hospital computer can connect to his doctor in Little Rock and access all his records through the Internet. The doctors in Colorado should be able to see images of his previous cardiac catheterization. The government wants these electronic medical records systems to be interoperable.”

Thus far there has not been huge EMR adoption by physicians, but it is anticipated the incentive program will ramp that up dramatically. Doctors were holding out until they saw what the new meaningful use rules for electronic health records announced by the Secretary for Health and Human Services would look like.

Physicians’ EMR have to meet the government criteria for meaningful use to qualify for the stimulus money.
“Physicians have been waiting to adopt EMR until the meaningful use criteria were released so they could be certain that the system they purchased met the criteria. 

"In addition, physicians were waiting to see if there would be a permanent Medicare SGR fix,” Hefley said. “That was just resolved in December. Thirdly, physicians were uncertain about taxes, whether the Bush tax cuts would be extended. That was decided in December, as well.  With these three impediments behind us, I anticipate that over the next two years there will be a rapid acceleration in the rate of physician adoption of EMR.”

To get the stimulus money, physicians must adopt EMR in 2011 or 2012. They will continue to get stimulus money in 2013, 2014, and in 2015. Doctors who haven’t adopted it will see a penalty in Medicare reimbursement from 2016 through 2018.

“If you act in the next couple of years, you get the carrot instead of the stick,” he said.

Hefley said MedEvolve has an EMR product capable of meeting differing philosophies. Some practices want a fully robust system with rich content and custom medical pathways. Others want a system focused more on the physician’s productivity. MedEvolve is always working to anticipate the needs of the modern medical practice. 

“We are currently in the process of enhancing our certified EMR system. Based on our experience, MedEvolve offers a more efficient solution to meet Meaningful Use,” Hefley said. “Older systems that have modules added after-the-fact might not be as efficient. It is like building a tiny house and adding a number of rooms over a period of years. At some time you feel like you should tear it down and start over.”  

MedEvolve’s system is also designed to address the issues of privacy and security, which are huge concerns with EMR. These systems must be able to communicate with each other and share information when necessary, but at all times must maintain security and privacy of patients’ healthcare information.
The company’s other offerings have been in use for years delivering quality service.

“We have a very mature, stable product that has been tested in the fire for many years now,” Hefley said. “It is daunting for a lot of physicians to comprehend and grasp government regulations and the complexity of the health insurance system. Some physicians choose to become an employee physician and go to work for a hospital or larger entity.

"Physicians who want to maintain independence can use a company like MedEvolve. MedEvolve can provide the practice management software, the electronic medical records, computer hardware and even the people to do the billing and collections through our revenue cycle management division.  MedEvolve understands the healthcare IT needs, government regulations, billing and insurance requirements. That will free them up to just practice medicine.”

Hefley sees major growth potential for MedEvolve, which currently employs 40 people.

“I expect the company is going to continue to grow,” he said. “We were founded on delivering unparalleled service to customers. I expect our level of growth to accelerate over the next four to five years with this EMR stimulus. EMR and revenue cycle management are the two divisions I expect to grow exponentially in the next few years as healthcare goes through this transition being spawned by the stimulus money. We want to grow rapidly, but maintain the level of service physicians have come to expect.”

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