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Cary Company Quietly Revolutionizing Health Care

August 5, 2010 | Story by: Hal Goodtree | Categories: Business, Featured, News, Profiles

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Story and pictures by Hal Goodtree

Cary, NC – Recently, we reported on the acquisition of Cary-based Medfusion by Intuit, the makers of Quicken. Last week, I sat down with Stephen Malik, the founder of Medfusion and now president and general manager of Intuit Health.

Making Healthcare Easier for Everyone

Wouldn’t it be great if all your medical records were digital, instantly accessible to you and your physicians? In fact, when you think about it, it’s crazy that only 20% of doctors and 10% of hospitals use digital patient records (source).

Welcome to the era of Electronic Health Records, or EHRs. The federal government issued new rules last month that reward doctors and hospitals for “meaningful use” of EHRs. Physicians can receive from $44,000 to $63,000 for adopting computerized medical records. Hospitals can receive millions.

“It should be like banking, but it isn’t,” Malik said about computerized medical records.

Intuit, with its acquisition of Medfusion, now has a leading platform for EHRs. According to The New York Times:

The Department of Health and Human Services said doctors and hospitals could receive as much as $27 billion over the next 10 years to buy equipment to computerize patients’ medical records.

Intuit Health’s new slogan, “Making Healthcare Easier for Everyone,” neatly marries their offerings to the overriding benefit. Considering the new federal rules, Malik said he “sees growth ahead” for Intuit Health.

The Patient Portal

A key provision of the new federal rule is the phrase “meaningful use.” That means doctors and hospitals can’t just computerize the records – they have to adopt a system that is useful to health care consumers (us).

Medfusion pioneered this front end to EHRs, the Patient Portal. Health care consumers can log in, make an appointment, get lab and test results, communicate with their doctor, pay bills online and even have ‘virtual’ office visits.

32,000 doctors and over 2 million patients already use Medfusion’s system.

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Intuit Health – A Cary Company

Following the acquisition, Intuit decided to merge its existing health care unit into Medfusion, retaining Cary as the headquarters and rebranding the operation as Intuit Health. “Intuit is excited to be in the Triangle,” said Malik. “This area has a great talent pool.”

Intuit Health has 118 employees in Cary and 45 in California. Steve mentioned that the company has some 20 job openings in Cary.

Steve Malik founded Medfusion in 1996. He has worked in health care IT for 25 years.

Malik grew up in Kinston and graduated from UNC with a degree in business administration. He lives in Raleigh now, but used to live in Lochmere.

A Great Place to Start a Business

Malik said Cary was “a great place to start a business.” He even observed that their building on Dillard Drive was “lucky.” It had previously been the home of A4 Health Systems, acquired by Allscripts for $272 million in 2006. “The building has mojo,” Malik observed.

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