MIke or Mary: Is this the serious competition, or what?
Boydude
Tuesday May 19, 1:20 pm Eastern Time
Company Press Release
SOURCE: ProxyMed, Inc.
ProxyMed Closes IMS Acquisition
FT. LAUDERDALE, Fla., May 19 /PRNewswire/ -- ProxyMed, Inc. (Nasdaq: PILL - news) has closed the acquisition of
WPJ, Inc. d/b/a Integrated Medical Systems (IMS) based in Santa Ana, California, that it had previously announced on April
27, 1998, for a purchase price of $27.5 million in cash and common stock. IMS, a California corporation, will be a
wholly-owned subsidiary of ProxyMed.
IMS, operating since 1987 in the Western United States, is a major clearinghouse of electronic medical claims, processing more
than 30 million financial transactions in 1997. IMS' network includes more than 500 insurance payors, including Blue
Cross/Blue Shields and major insurance companies, and 35,000 healthcare providers to whom ProxyMed may now cross-sell
its additional prescription and laboratory connectivity services. The IMS acquisition, along with ProxyMed's acquisition of
U.S. HealthData Interchange in November 1997, another provider of financial EDI services to the healthcare marketplace,
makes ProxyMed an emerging national healthcare EDI company.
Harold S. Blue, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of ProxyMed, said, ''This accretive acquisition of IMS makes
ProxyMed one of the leading financial EDI clearinghouses in the healthcare marketplace and the only one that also offers
transmission of clinical EDI messages. In addition, IMS positions us to compete even more aggressively on price and quality of
service on a national scale. I am also especially pleased to welcome the IMS employees into our company.''
Robert Weinberger and Mark Pehl were the sole shareholders of IMS and will continue as co-Chief Executive Officers of IMS.
Mr. Weinberger stated, ''We have been courted by many companies, but we chose to partner with ProxyMed because we are
extremely excited about the quality of its management and its strategic direction. The synergies between our companies are
significant, combining the many value-added products and services that ProxyMed brings to us and national payor connectivity
that we bring to them. We at IMS look forward to being an integral partner in competing in the national marketplace.''
ProxyMed, Inc., based in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, is a healthcare information service company that provides online clinical
and financial electronic data interchange (EDI) services to physicians. ProxyMed connects physicians to pharmacies,
commercial and hospital laboratories, nursing homes, payors and managed care companies through its secure national
healthcare information network, ProxyNet(TM).
Note: This News Release contains ''forward-looking statements'' within the meaning of the federal securities laws. These
forward-looking statements include assumptions, beliefs and opinions relating to the Company's growth strategy based upon
the Company's interpretation and analysis of healthcare industry trends and management's ability to successfully develop,
implement, market and sell its secure network transaction processing services, software programs, clinical databases and
financial transaction services to physicians and other healthcare providers. This strategy assumes that physicians will prefer
''one-stop shopping'' for its products and services and that the Company will be able to successfully develop, acquire,
maintain and upgrade competitive clinical and financial transaction sets and successfully integrate them with the Company's
existing products and services. This strategy also assumes that the Company will be able to successfully develop and execute
its strategic relationships, especially with the providers of information systems to physicians under the Company's electronic
commerce partner program, and with pharmacy chains, independent pharmacy owners and pharmacy information system
vendors. Many known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors, including general economic conditions, healthcare
reform initiatives, millennium compliance issues that may arise, and risk factors detailed from time to time in the Company's
Securities and Exchange Commission filings, may cause these forward-looking statements to be incorrect, and may cause
actual results to be materially different from any future results expressed or implied by these assumptions, opinions and beliefs.
The Company expressly disclaims any intent or obligation to update any forward looking statements.
More information on ProxyMed is available on their home page at prnewswire.com.
More information on Integrated Medical Systems is available on their home page at imsedi.com
SOURCE: ProxyMed, Inc. |
