Merge Healthcare Announces the Addition of 11 Radiology Practices That Have Selected Merge RIS to Achieve Meaningful Use

Merge Healthcare (NASDAQ: MRGE), a leading provider of enterprise imaging and interoperability solutions, today announced the addition of eleven radiology practices that have selected Merge RIS v7.0 to achieve Meaningful Use.

"Meaningful Use is gaining significant momentum in the radiology community,” said Jeff Surges, CEO of Merge Healthcare. "Radiologists are witnessing how seamlessly solutions like Merge RIS can be integrated into their practice, without disrupting their workflow, while administrators and executives are experiencing how Merge RIS is building the foundation for future growth. All involved are seeing how Merge RIS v7.0 can lead to an increase in revenue and help them avoid future penalties.”

With Merge RIS v7.0, radiologists can now utilize a completely native radiology solution for radiology-specific workflow to capture and report on the metrics required to demonstrate Meaningful Use of electronic health records, without disrupting the traditional radiology workflow. With Merge RIS v7.0, radiologists can qualify to receive up to $44,000 in stimulus incentives, per eligible provider.

"We selected Merge because they were the only vendor able to provide an enterprise-wide solution versus a piecemeal approach,” said Melissa Ray, Practice Administrator at Radiology Consultants of Lynchburg. "In addition to Merge RIS v7.0, we will utilize Merge PACS, Merge Financials, Merge Dashboards and Merge iConnect Access. And now, not only will we be able to take advantage of the stimulus incentives available for achieving Meaningful Use, but more importantly, we’ll be able to significantly improve productivity and workflow efficiencies.”

"With Merge RIS, the information just flows better, from the minute the patient calls to schedule an appointment all the way through billing,” said Tony Musilli, Chief Operations Officer at Booth Radiology in West Deptford, New Jersey. "Merge RIS 7.0 is very intuitive and has a much tighter integration than systems we’ve used in the past. The Merge suite is going to take our practice to the next level of efficiency, so for us, the choice to use Merge for Meaningful Use was obvious.”

"One of the reasons we selected Merge RIS v7.0 was because it has complete certification versus modular certification,” said Christopher Bryant, Executive Director, Radiology Associates of West Pasco "If you utilize a modular system, you as the provider, the onus is on you to find another product or combination of products that meet the remaining criteria before you can claim to be using a certified EHR and qualify for MU funds. Because Merge’s solution received complete certification, we don’t have to worry about that at all.”

"We are a front-to-back Merge client,” said Laverna Hubbard, Administrator at North State Radiology in Northern California. "One of the main reasons we chose Merge RIS, PACS and Financials is because the Merge team listens. They understand our business and are committed to delivering exceptional customer service and support.”

Merge RIS v7.0 functionality includes ePrescribing, enhanced reporting that enables physicians to automatically trend clinical data and report on Meaningful Use measures, new clinical decision support, the clinical exchange of health information through industry standard formats, and a patient portal that empowers patients to access their records at their convenience. This new functionality was built natively within the intuitive, web-based Merge RIS so that any radiology practice can achieve Meaningful Use attestation in a manner that works for their specialty.

About Merge Healthcare

Merge Healthcare is a leading provider of enterprise imaging and interoperability solutions, with a client base consisting of more than 1,500 hospitals and 6,000 clinics across the country. Merge solutions facilitate the sharing of images to create a more effective and efficient electronic healthcare experience for patients and physicians. Merge provides enterprise imaging solutions for radiology, cardiology, orthopaedics and eye care; a suite of products for clinical trials; software for financial and pre-surgical management, and applications that fuel the largest modality vendors in the world. Merge’s products have been used by healthcare providers, vendors and researchers worldwide to improve patient care for more than 20 years. Additional information can be found at www.merge.com.

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