1. H.I.S.-tory
by Vince Ciotti
Episode #88: GE
Healthcare
Part 1
© 2013 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.

2. 6th of Today’s Leading HIS Vendors
• This week we continue the HIS-tory of today’s
vendors withGE Healthcare, whose 2012
estimated revenue places them in6th place:
1. $3.2B = McKesson, née HBOC = Walt Huff, Bruce Barrington, & David
Owens
2. $2.6B = Cerner, still run by Neal Patterson, co-founded with Cliff Illig
3. $1.8B (est) = Siemens, née SMS: Jim Macaleer, Harvey Wilson & Clyde Hyde
4. $1.5B =Epic. Gee, I have to wonder, just who was it who founded them?
5. $1.4B =Allscripts, née Eclipsys, also founded by Harvey Wilson of SMS.
6. $850M (est) - GE Healthcare, née IDX/PHAMIS: created by Malcolm Gleser
7. $597M = Meditech, still run after all these years by Antonino Papallardo
8. $375M = NextGen: née Quality Systems Inc. founded by Sheldon Razin
9. $183M = CPSI, founded by M. Kenny Muscat & Denny P. Wilkins (who??)
10. $156M = HMS (Healthcare Management Systems), Tom Givens & John Doss
11. $150M = Keane, parent giant by John Keane, but HIS div. built by Ray Paris
12. $106M = QuadraMed, née Compucare, founded by Sheldon Dorenfest

3. Notice The Changes?
• Wonder who noticed the changed position of several vendors in the
preceding table with 2012 revenue? Two even have new names!
2012 Annual Revenue 2011 Annual Revenue
1. $3.2B = McKesson
2. $2.6B = Cerner
3. $1.8B (est) = Siemens
4. $1.5B = Epic
5. $1.4B = Allscripts
6. $850M (est) - GE Healthcare
7. $597M = Meditech
8. $375M = NextGen
9. $183M = CPSI
10. $156M = Health Tech (HMS)
11. $150M = NTT Data (Keane)
12. $106M = QuadraMed
13. $75M (est) = Healthland
1. $3.2B = McKesson
2. $2.2B = Cerner
3. $1.7B (est) = Siemens
4. $1.4B = Allscripts
5. $1.2B = Epic
6. $900M (est) - GE Healthcare
7. $545M = Meditech
8. $353M = NextGen
9. $174M = CPSI
10. $170M = QuadraMed
11. $160M = Keane
12. $110M =HMS
13. $70M (est) = Healthland

4. Another 44 Year Old!
• Thanks to feedback from Sheldon Dorenfest, easily the most
knowledgeable expert in our industry (whose “3000 Guide” was
the source for HIMSS Analytics), below is a corrected version of
the macro-level time line showing the roots of all 13 of today’s
leading HIS vendors (turns out HBO wasn’t formed until 1975)
• I was amazed to learn when researching the roots of IDX, the
source of GE’s “Centricity Enterprise” HIS, that it too started way
back in 1969, the same year as Meditech, SMS and Compucare.

5. Acquisition-itis
• GE’s roots are as complex as Halley’s novel, so we’ll just trace
the core of its “Centricity Enterprise” HIS; I’d need a blog as long
as Mr. HIS-Talk’s to cover all of the many ancillary systems they
acquired over the years to create their product line, including:
Company Acquired Date(New Name)
– Lockheed Martin/LORAL 1997 (Centricity PACS)
– Marquette Medical Systems 1998 (Centricity Perinatal)
– Applicare 1999 (Centricity PACS)
– Micro Medical 2000 (Centricity CVIS)
– Per-Se RIS 2001 (Centricity RIS )
– iPathORMIS 2002 (Centricity Perioperative)
– BDM 2002 (Centricity Pharmacy)
– MedicaLogic Logician 2002 (Centricity Physician Office EMR)
– Millbrook 2002 (Centricity Physician Office PM)
– TripleG 2003 (Centricity Lab)

6. Northern Roots
• The core of GE Healthcare’s HIS came from another company
formed in the frozen northlands (what is it with ice and HIS??):
IDX, acquired by GE in 2006 to put it on the HIS map. IDX
themselves has built & acquired a wide array of HIS products
which GE renamed with one of their “Centricity” monikers:
Product(New Name)
IDX Flowcast (Centricity Business)
IDX Groupcast (Centricity Group Management)
IDX Carecast (Centricity Enterprise)
IDX Patient Online (Centricity Patient Online)
IDX Referring Practice (Centricity Referring Practice)
IDX eCommerceServices (Centricity EDI Services)
IDX Web Framework (Centricity Web Framework)
IDX Imagecast(Centricity RIS-IC)

7. So Who is “BDP?”
• You mean you never heard of “Burlington Data Processing?”
Neither did I, and it’s only one of many surprises I learned when
researching the roots of IDX. It all started on a basketball team!
• It’s so cold at Saint Michael's College in
Vermont that they concentrate on indoor
sports like basketball, and in the 1960s,
two young hoopsters played ball together,
then both joined IBM upon graduation.
• (Another pattern in HIS-tory: how many HIS founders started as
big blue sales reps, like Jim Macaleer &Harvey Wilson of SMS)
• These two former ST. Mike’s teammates left IBM on June 2 of
1969 and using $12,500 of their own savings, formed BDP:
• Robert Hoehl(on left)
• Richard E. Tarrant(right)

8. Diverse Markets
• Like so many other HIS start-ups, BDP at first served varied vertical
markets, processing accounting, billing, and payroll for many firms.
• BDP quickly concentrated on the healthcare industry. In its June
1998 issue, Business Digest revisited a 1985 article about Hoehl
and Tarrant that included comments from Dr. Henry Tufo, one of
BDP'sfirst customers. Tufo recalled howBDP outbid a number of
national firms to build a system for the new University Health
Center during the 1970s.Joking that their low bid may have
stemmed from a relative lack of industry experience,
Tufopraised the two entrepreneurs, calling
Hoehl "the best practical computer mind
I've ever run into" and stating that Tarrant
"understands his business and has the
talent to sell ice cream to the Eskimos.”
• That sure ties in with frozen Vermont!

9. Regulatory Complexity
• Probably as a result of their work with Dr. Tufo, in 1970, BDP
rolled out what it described as the first “open item” physician
billing system. The following year the company declared that the
healthcare industry would be its specialty and it embarked on a
path of steady growth that continued into the late 1970s.
– So what’s an “open item?” Hospitals had it relatively easy with
their bills, which roll hundreds of charges into one green 1453
bill, which Medicare Part A, Blue Cross, etc., then paid all or
part of based on a per diem or % (no DRGs back then).
– Physician billers go mad as Medicare Part B, Blue Shield,
etc.,hunt and peck through every charge on their bills (white
“1554” bills back then), paying some in full, some in part, and
rejecting others… Each charge is “open” until settled by itself.
• So Hoehl& Tarrant were on to something: writing a billing and AR
system that treated each charge as an open item, not one big bill.

10. Next Week
• It turns out Hoehl& Tarrant weren’t the only
ones helping physicians with these
accounting challenges: they soon ran across
a competitor in nearby Boston that was
using daring DEC minicomputers to do what
BDP was doing on stodgy old IBM 360 series
mainframes. Like BDP, they had 2 founders:
• Their names read like a “who’s who” in
IT circles today; do you recognize them
and know where they ended up?
- Paul Egerman(on the left)
- Terry Ragon(on the right)
• When you hear what these two guys
eventually got into, it almost makes GE
pale by comparison! Stay tuned…