NextGen Creates Its Own Telehealth Platform With 2 New Acquisitions

NextGen Healthcare is jumping into the telehealth business.

The California-based EHR provider recently acquired two companies with deep roots in the connected care space, with the goal of creating a virtual care platform that can integrate with a wide variety of health information systems.

Earlier this month, the company announced the completion of a deal to acquire Medfusion, a North Carolina-based developer of mHealth-based patient engagement services, including scheduling and bill-paying. A few days later, NextGen completed its acquisition of OTTO Health, a California-based developer of virtual care services.

“By acquiring OTTO Health, and recently Medfusion, we have made significant steps forward as we continue our mission of providing our clients integrated capabilities to engage and delight their patients,” Rusty Frantz, NextGen’s President and Chief Executive Officer, said in a recent press release. “By integrating virtual care across the NextGen Healthcare platform, we are now able to offer the ability for patients and providers to experience a new dimension of care without taking the providers out of their natural workflow while meeting the patients at their point of convenience.”

The deals push NextGen into a crowded telehealth market that includes big players like American Well, Teladoc Health, InTouch Health, Doctor on Demand and MDLive, smaller niche companies that focus on specific services or provider markets, and health systems with home-grown platforms seeking to build new revenue streams.

In its announcements, NextGen is focusing on a pain point that has kept the telehealth industry from seeing high adoption rates: integration. Many telemedicine services exist outside the EHR or are bolted onto the platform with limited points of entry, forcing health systems to silo data or find workarounds to support care provider workflows without causing chaos.

Healthcare pundits have said that the next phase of telehealth innovation will focus on integrating these platforms, services and tools so that data flows freely from the point of care – be it the hospital, doctor’s office, clinic, school or home – into the medical record, and vice versa.

“Integrated virtual care is another must-have capability that we are excited to offer our clients as they continue advancing the mission of engaged and loyal patients,” Frantz said in the press release.