
Workforce management and staffing company AMN Healthcare has acquired Peak Health Solutions, a health information management services company that provides remote medical coding and consulting to hospitals and physician medical groups.
Peak Health Solutions said it currently pulls in $33 million in annual revenue and holds a 15 percent profit margin.
The acquisition was paid for out of cash on hand and borrowings under the company's existing revolving credit facility. The business will be included in the company's Other Workforce Solutions segment for financial reporting purposes.
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AMN's business model is to simplify complex administrative processes and lower organizations' staffing expenses. Company President and CEO Susan Salka said in a statement that the goal of the acquisition is to expand its products and improve healthcare organizations' financial health by helping them administer accurate diagnosis and procedure codes.
The news comes mere months after officials from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services announced they will add another 5,500 codes to the ICD-10 diagnostic library effective Oct. 1 -- the one-year anniversary of ICD-10's roll-out. With its nearly 70,000 codes, it replaced the dated, and much more compact, ICD-9 code set.
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John Morris, president of Peak Health Solutions, said in a statement that his outfit's purpose to help healthcare providers improve clinical documentation to ensure timely reimbursement.
"With more than 150,000 ICD-10 codes to choose from, healthcare organizations have an ongoing need for coding support to reduce potential lost revenue, minimize compliance risk and augment their billing teams," said Morris.
In March, CMS said it plans to add about 1,900 diagnosis codes and 3,651 hospital inpatient procedure codes to the ICD-10 coding system for healthcare claims in fiscal year 2017.
Twitter: @JELagasse