XiFin Acquisition Opens Opportunities for Diagnostics Providers, Targets Patient-Centric Care

XiFin recently announced the acquisition of OmniSYS, a healthcare technology company that serves more than 30,000 pharmacies, including four out of the top five national chains. OmniSYS capabilities include patient engagement, medical claims processing, automated pricing, managing clinical workflow, and supporting new clinical services such as immunizations, medication management, point-of-care testing, and clinical encounters.

Why is this significant? 

Care delivery is evolving into a more patient-centric and convenient service, with an increasing focus on outcomes and cost. This parallels the sustained surge in consumerism that has fundamentally changed how businesses engage with customers in every aspect of our lives – technology, media, retail, hospitality, transportation, financial, legal, etc. 

Beyond consumer demand, a confluence of factors is further shaping modes of healthcare delivery: 

• Continued physician shortage, with an aging population. 
• Widespread demand to wring out excessive system cost.
• Competitive pressure on pharmacy margins from 3rd party apps (i.e., Amazon, GoodRx).
• Consumer proximity to pharmacies: nearly 90% of Americans live within 5 miles of a pharmacy. 
• Evolving legislative and regulatory environment: 37 states recognize pharmacists as providers under the rules of Medicare Part B. 
• Massive increase in vaccination and testing by pharmacies, including 198 million COVID-19 doses administered at 41,000 locations. 

A clear result from the convergence of these factors is a shift in the point-of-care closer to the customer, resulting in the growth of care delivery via telehealth and the retail pharmacy. 

As evidence, hospital use of telehealth more than doubled from 2010-2017, from 35% to 76%. More recently, per the CDC, “during the first quarter of 2020, the number of telehealth visits increased by 50%, compared with the same period in 2019.” Notably, most of these Q1 encounters were not COVID-19-related.

As for growth in pharmacy-provided care, consider that CVS boasts 1,100 walk-in clinics along with 9,900 pharmacies. Walmart plans to open 4,000 primary care “supercenters” in stores by 2029 that will include clinical laboratory testing services. Few would dispute that the pandemic is accelerating this trend. 

Along with bolstering pharmacy margins, this new model presents sweeping benefits for stakeholders. Consumers gain improvements in convenience, access, cost, and potentially, outcomes. Providers are afforded the opportunities to manage these services, along with realizing greater efficiencies, and the potential to improve quality of care. 

How does XiFin fit in?

XiFin has cultivated a potent strategic foundation that securely aligns with this broader vision of healthcare delivery.

• Firmly-rooted partnerships across the spectrum of stakeholders, including laboratories, specialty physician groups, radiology practices, medical device/remote patient monitoring providers, and hospital labs and outpatient facilities.  
• Consolidated access to key financial, demographic, and clinical data. 
• VisualStrata, a powerful healthcare informatics platform. 
• Unparalleled capabilities in workflow management technology and revenue cycle management (RCM) automation, connectivity, payor management, analytics, patient engagement, and compliance support. 

With the acquisition of OmniSYS, XiFin gains a market leader focused on helping pharmacies engage patients, grow clinical services, and improve financial performance. XiFin now solidifies its ability to fully realize a broader vision for healthcare technology and champion this evolution of care:

• Deliver optimized revenue cycle management and healthier financials for laboratories, hospital outreach and outpatient providers, physician groups, and pharmacies. 
• Enable new clinical workflow support for pharmacies. 
• Improve patient engagement capabilities of all stakeholders. 
• Facilitate partnerships among diagnostics providers and pharmacies to manage services.    
• Aid hospitals in aligning with retail pharmacies to bolster outreach programs or potentially outsource pharmacy operations.
• Help secure payor reimbursement approvals for new treatments with consolidated data from diagnostic providers and pharmacies.
• Ultimately deliver an advanced data platform yielding a trove of information useful for decision support, pharmacy informatics, pharmacogenetics, and other advancing fields.