Sage Announces Healthcare Client Receiving Meaningful Use Medicare Incentive Payment

TAMPA, FL--(Marketwire - May 25, 2011) - Sage Healthcare Division, a unit of Sage North America, announced today that its client, Old Hook Medical Associates, a multi-specialty practice in Emerson, NJ, is among the first group of practices in the US to receive meaningful use incentive payments under the Medicare EHR Incentive Program.

Physicians at the Old Hook Medical Associates (OHMA) attested on April 19 that they had met the required meaningful use criteria published by the centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) using the Sage Intergy Meaningful Use Edition, an ONC-ATCB meaningful use certified electronic health records (EHR) product, before receiving payment in May.

"Old Hook Medical Associates has been using technology to enhance the satisfaction of our patients and providers and to assist us in delivering quality care for several years," said Edward Gold, MD, a physician at OHMA and the group's president. "Meaningful Use builds on our previous efforts, while raising the bar for early EHR adopters and extending best practices, so physicians and other providers can achieve better outcomes across the entire system. That's the goal and it's very positive to see progress being made toward reaching it."

The CMS Medicare and Medicaid EHR incentive programs provide a financial incentive for the meaningful use of certified EHR technology by eligible professionals to help drive improved quality, efficiency and coordination of care across the US healthcare system.

As an ONC-ATCB meaningful use-certified product, the Sage Intergy Meaningful Use Edition includes all of the required functionality to meet Stage 1 meaningful use, including electronic health records, practice management, reporting capabilities and a secure Web-based patient portal from which patients can communicate with physicians, view their health information, schedule appointments, view lab results and request prescription refills. The Sage Intergy Meaningful Use Edition was designed with ease of adoption as a guiding principle to ensure practices can more easily adapt their workflows to meet Meaningful Use.

"Sage is incredibly proud of this achievement by Old Hook Medical Associates, an early adopter of EHR technology and now an early adopter of meaningful use," said Betty Otter-Nickerson, president of Sage Healthcare Division. "Sage celebrates this success in order to point out that both the incentives and the benefits to our healthcare system associated with meaningful use are real. Old Hook Medical Associates is demonstrating, as they have done for over a decade, that the success recently envisioned through the EHR Incentive Program -- of using healthcare information technology to empower providers and patients to improve health outcomes -- is real and achievable."

Sage has one of the largest U.S. physician practice footprints among software solution providers in the market, providing ambulatory healthcare systems for 30 years, serving more than 400,000 healthcare professionals including 80,000 physicians in the United States. Each year, Sage clinical physician partners accommodate more than 133 million patient visits in their practices. Sage Healthcare Division is a unit of Sage North America and a major provider of electronic health records and practice management software and services.

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About Old Hook Medical Associates
Old Hook Medical Associates, LLC is a 20-physician multi-specialty practice located in Emerson, NJ dedicated to providing quality services in a convenient one-stop location. The practice is dedicated to a team approach with physicians, nurse practitioners, and staff working together in an atmosphere of close cooperation. The practice is nationally recognized as a certified Patient-Centered Medical Home (PCMH) by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA), and uses its EHR system to support the goals of the program through open scheduling, extended hours, and engagement of patients in their care. Physicians have 24-hour access to records and patients are able to securely review their medications, immunizations and other health information online.

About Sage Healthcare Division
Sage Healthcare Division provides integrated electronic health records, EDI applications and practice management systems to approximately 80,000 physicians and thousands of ambulatory care practices throughout North America. These systems enable physicians and practice managers to better manage their practices and improve quality of care. Sage Healthcare Division is based in Tampa, Fla., and is a division of Sage North America. For more information, please visit www.sagehealth.com or call (877) 932-6301. Follow Sage Healthcare Division on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/SageHealthcare, and Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/sagehealthcare.

About Sage North America
Sage North America is part of The Sage Group plc, a leading global supplier of business management software and related products and services, principally for small to medium-sized businesses. Sage North America employs 3,900 people and supports more than 3 million small and midsized business customers. Formed in 1981, Sage was floated on the London Stock Exchange in 1989. Sage has more than 6 million customers and 13,600 employees worldwide. We operate in over 24 countries covering the UK, Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia, India and China. For more information, please visit the website at www.sagenorthamerica.com. Follow Sage North America on Facebook, www.facebook.com/SageNorthAmerica, and Twitter, http://twitter.com/sagenamerica.

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