Kareo Acquires Medical Billing Company ECCO Health

IRVINE, Calif., July 24, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Kareo, Inc., the cloud-based medical office software and services provider for small medical practices, announced today its acquisition of privately held ECCO Health, a full-service provider of medical billing and associated solutions. Kareo has extended employment offers to all ECCO managers and employees and all are expected to join the new combined company. The acquisition of ECCO follows Kareo's January 2013 launch of Kareo Billing Services, and the combined business now provides medical billing services to over 500 medical practices nationwide.

"Having worked with hundreds of billing companies since Kareo's founding in 2004, we've developed a deep understanding of the range of capabilities from billing company to billing company," said Dan Rodrigues, founder and CEO of Kareo. "ECCO is noteworthy due to the strength of its team, the quality of its customer relationships, the efficiency of its operational model, and the company's track record of innovation. The combination of ECCO's considerable strengths with Kareo will enable us to deliver an even stronger solution to the market. We welcome ECCO's customers and team to the Kareo family."

ECCO Health has provided medical billing services for the last decade, building a national capability from the company's base in Las Vegas. Through insights created by ECCO's deep customer relationships, the company has extended its billing services to include physician credentialing, front office services, and best practice consulting. ECCO has built considerable expertise across a wide range of specialties, including Primary Care, Gastroenterology, General Surgery, Plastic Surgery, Otolaryngology, Pain Management, Endocrinology, Internal Medicine, Podiatry, Infectious Diseases, Hospitalist and Hospitalists Groups, Surgery Centers, Urgent Care, Anesthesia, Neurology, Cardiology, Dermatology and Durable Medical Equipment organizations. ECCO has succeeded by helping its medical practice customers operate more efficiently and effectively while ensuring they get paid for their important work of providing patient care.

"The strengths of Kareo's practice management and EHR applications have been a key element of our success with our customers over time," said Jim Sholeff, founder and partner of ECCO Health. "We also appreciate Kareo's commitment to working in an open and collaborative way with its partners, including billing companies. Now we have a remarkable opportunity to join forces and deliver to our customers an even stronger set of solutions."

According to a new report by Frost & Sullivan, U.S. Physician Revenue Cycle Management (RCM), the market for physician RCM solutions in 2012 was $11.1 billion and is expected to grow to $14.6 billion by 2016. "Medical Practices realize they must take every measure to maximize revenue and address inefficiencies and shortfalls in getting paid fully and on a timely basis," wrote Nancy Fabozzi, Principal Analyst, Connected Health, Frost & Sullivan. "Medical practices will need to significantly re-engineer their entire RCM function, and most will seek solutions that offer robust integration between clinical and financial systems."

The acquisition of ECCO positions Kareo well for the expected growth in integrated physician RCM solutions. The company now serves over 20,000 providers across the U.S. representing all medical specialties. Kareo delivers an integrated cloud-based platform comprised of EHR, practice management, and technology-enabled medical billing services. Kareo also provides a broad selection of specialty EHRs and value-added applications delivered through integrated partner solutions and maintains a network of over 600 medical billing companies that deliver their unique services utilizing Kareo's practice management application. In 2013, over $25 billion in medical billing will be managed through the Kareo platform with software and services enabling providers to achieve the highest possible collection rates.

About ECCO Health
ECCO Health is a trusted nationwide professional medical billing service and practice management company based in Las Vegas, Nevada, with BPO operations in Chennai, India and San Jose, Costa Rica.  The Company focuses on relieving administrative duties of small and medium sized medical practices, allowing doctors to focus on patient care. ECCO provides full-service medical billing and coding, practice management, bilingual scheduling and operator service, referral and recall management, patient eligibility verification, prior authorizations and credentialing & contracting services. 

About Kareo
Kareo is the only cloud-based medical office software and services platform dedicated to small practices. At Kareo, we believe that, with the right tools and support, small practices can do big things. We offer an integrated suite of products and services designed to help small practice physicians get paid faster, run their business smarter, and provide better care. Our Practice Management software, Billing Services, and free, full-featured EHR help more than 20,000 medical providers more efficiently manage the business and clinical sides of their practice. Headquartered in Irvine, California, Kareo's mission is to help providers spend their time focused on patients, not paperwork. For more information, visit www.kareo.com.

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SOURCE Kareo, Inc.