Emdeon EquiClaim

Emdeon, the revenue and payments-cycle company, bought EquiClaim, and audio and recovery services firm. Release here. Other VNC coverage.

Emdeon acquisition announced

Nashville-based Emdeon today announced its acquistion of Indianapolis-based Healthcare Technology Management Services, for cash and stock worth about $11MM. Release here.

Emdeon now covered by Avondale

Avondale's Sean Jackson has initiated coverage of Emdeon, with a $19 share price. NashvillePost.com has it.

Emdeon's Lazenby says fraud is target

Tennessean reporter Getahn Ward interviewed Emdeon CEO George Lazenby, who says that his company automates claims payments for the majority of payers in the U.S., and that there is $30BN to be saved in the healthcare delivery system by automating transactions in order to reduce fraud. The story's here.

Emdeon grabs FutureVision

Nashville-based Emdeon announced today it has purchased Salt Lake City-based FutureVision Technologies, a document-conversion and data-management firm. Earlier VNC Emdeon coverage here and here.

TNInvestco queues forming, Emdeon questions rising

Erin Lawley writes in The City Paper today that the six winning TNInvestco companies are talking with lots of entrepreneurs, and, as it has previously, talk of porfolio companies being lured here from other states resurfaces. Additional TNInvestco coverage. Emdeon also attracts Lawley's eye: She reports on confusion about Emdeon's role, and persistent concern among analysts that Emdeon will become 'disintermediated' by ancillary players and other solutions. See VNC's earlier report on analysts concerns about Emdeon's posture in marketplace, and preference for niche like Passport's.

Health efficiency index update

The Emdeon-sponsored U.S. Health Efficiency Index -- which today puts at 43% the healthcare sector's efficiency in claims processing and related functions (which Emdeon happens to influence) -- will have a new data-collection center. Release here. The Index was architected by Miriam Paramore, Emdeon's chief for strategy.

Soros' Emdeon stake

Geert De Lombaerde reports this afternoon on an SEC filing showing that George Soros' fund owns more than 7 percent of Nashville-based Emdeon.

Emdeon jury out

As we reported early yesterday, analyst Bret Jones expected the underwriters of Emdeon's IPO to send strong signals of support yesterday. But the banks' actions seemed lackluster, taken overall. It's still early, Jones told VNC later yesterday, but given it was the first day after the Emdeon quiet period ended, Jones said "it was not as positive of a reception as I imagined." NYSE:EM 30-day charts ending Sept. 21, at left.

Emdeon gets 'Sell' signal

Analyst Bret Jones, with NYC-based Brean Murray Carret & Co., put a Sell rating on Emdeon, Jones' full report is here. The analyst argues the stock has been overvalued by an overly generous association with the Health IT sector, and which is challenged by emerging regional health information exchanges. Only the revenue-cycle portion of Emdeon's business is truly Health IT, said Jones. Analyst Jones, who joined Brean Murray earlier this year, has been talking about Health IT, itself, being overvalued since at least February, when he did this Reuters interview. HT: NashvillePost.com

Emdeon data deal

Emdeon's latest SEC filing shows the company's doing a build and lease-back deal with Solomon Builders for a new data center at Airpark Center East, no doubt much to the chagrin of such local data-hosting and managed-services providers as SunGard, Peak10 and Nexus Group.

Emdeon entry

A NYSE blog captures the interest in Emdeon's (NYSE:EM) IPO, which priced yesterday and begins trading today. Yesterday, Cumberland Pharma went live on the NASDAQ, reported in full by VNC.

Emdeon IPO

If ever you doubt that perspectives differ between entrepreneurs in seed- and early-stage companies, on the one hand, and corporate executives looking to go public, just take a look at Emdeon's IPO, finalized today. It'll attract somewhere between $140MM-$380MM. The SEC filing says the IPO offering process, itself, will cost Emdeon about $9.5 Million, in addition to sales commissions and underwriting discounts.

Emdeon technivore?

Assuming Emdeon eventually hits the button on its prospective initial public offering of common stock, the company is likely to continue its acquisitive ways. Last week's Emdeon announcement of its acquisition of eRx Network came three years after the pair entered a strategic alliance. Within the past ten months, Emdeon also announced its acquisition of GE Healthcare Information Technology's patient-statement business; and, its purchase of The Sentinel Group, a fraud- and abuse-management services provider. With that in mind, we note that within the past 15 months Emdeon also announced strategic alliances with Durham-based Bloodhound Partner (Optimal Business-Trustmark Holdings), a claims analytics provider; and, consummated a tech partnership with drug-claims tech provider NovoLogix (then known as ACM Inc.), based in Minneapolis. The flurry of activity in 2008, followed by a few weeks the purchase by Emdeon's private-equity backers (General Atlantic and Hellman & Friedman) of the remaining Emdeon ownership stake held, theretofore, by HLTH Corp. (itself soon to be integrated within WebMD). Emdeon has shelf-registed a potential $460MM IPO with the SEC, and has indicated both that some of the proceeds of the offering will be directed toward further acquisitions; and, that its current private-equity controllers will continue to retain controlling interest of the company after the IPO. A considerable chunk of Emdeon's corporate 'DNA' traces back to the formation of Envoy Corporation here, more than 20 years ago, by Fred Goad, who now partners with former Envoy exec Jim Kever in Brentwood-based Voyent Partners, through which the pair invests in angel and private-equity deals.

Emdeon amends IPO registration

Today, Emdeon filed its second amendment to its $460MM IPO shelf registration. The SEC document is here.

Nashville Health IT garners awards

We had to chuckle, reading the headline on a Nov. 25 release from VU spinoff portfolio company Informatics Corporation of America (ICA), in which the company announced it had taken the Gartner-linked "2008 Healthcare IT Summit by Storm, Winning Two of Five Award Categories." You gotta love such unbridled enthusiasm, which, these days, could only arise where there's plenty of cash on-tap. It's not just still-small startups that are bragging about their tech expertise. A few weeks ago, it was venture-backed Emdeon blowing its horn about winning SAP/Business Object's Business Intelligence Excellence Awards. Emdeon is owned by private-equity players General Atlantic LLC and Hellman & Friedman LLC.