Salt Lake-based AdvancedMD is a leader in Web-based practice management and medical billing software. We recently caught up with Eric Morgan, AdvancedMD's President and CEO, to learn more about the history and direction of his company.

Silicon Slopes: Can you describe what AdvancedMD does?

Eric Morgan: In 2000, AdvancedMD pioneered medical practice management and billing software, delivered as a Software-as-a-Service platform. Our application was built from the ground up as a shared or multi-tenant Web-based application. (Background: The product delivers a range of software services including front office scheduling, physician/patient encounter tracking (EHR), a patient self-service portal, smartphone and mobile access, integrated/electronic claims submissions and remittance posting, electronic insurance eligibility checking, and electronic prescribing for the physician.)

Today, the AdvancedMD application supports over 3,800 physician practices, representing over 10,000 providers from around the country, and several hundred billing services that use our applications on behalf of their physician clients. We are the second largest SaaS-based software solutions for our target markets, behind only Athenahealth, based in Massachusetts.  

Our primary market is serving small- to medium-sized practices, which were among the early adopters of our SaaS-based applications. Prior to the SaaS option, it was a real challenge for traditional, on-premises software providers to profitability sell and support advanced, practice management and health record technologies in this smaller-practice market segment. The introduction of our Web-based SaaS platform has proven that we can successfully service this market, while providing a valuable solution to these practices. More recently, we have started to see larger groups begin to adopt SaaS-based applications.  

The company really started to turn the corner in 2006–07, when we became financially independent in terms of generating our own cash and profits. Over the past several years, we have experienced a 45 percent compounded annual growth rate.

Because we sell the AdvancedMD software as a month-to-month subscription, we have to earn our clients’ business each and every month. As the economy has gotten tough, purchasing technology with big upfront, capital outlays is not desirable for many businesses, let alone small physician practices. By contrast, our SaaS model allows a practice to pay for the software as they use it, in small monthly increments. Included in our monthly fee is unlimited tech support, updates and upgrades. Importantly, because everything is done over the Web, we are able to off-load almost all IT responsibilities from the practice to AdvancedMD. As a result, our customers simply need a computer and an Internet connection, giving them anytime, anywhere access.

Silicon Slopes: Are you originally from Utah?

Eric Morgan: No I am not, but I enjoyed visiting Utah for many years, so I knew a bit about it before moving here. I grew up and started my career in the New York/New Jersey area, working for NCR corporation in the retail sector. I have been involved with technology throughout my career, starting out in sales and working my way into various management positions. Later, I went to Lawson Software and was there for 13 years. It was during my time with Lawson that I gained experience in the healthcare market. Ultimately, I ran that segment of the business for Lawson, selling a healthcare ERP product to hospitals. After Lawson I ran another Healthcare technology startup in Atlanta and then took this position with AdvancedMD. So I have been in the healthcare information technology segment for a total of about 15 years, now.

Silicon Slopes: How do you like Utah?

Eric Morgan: Utah is one of the best kept secrets in the country! The business and economic environment is very good. And the state provides a great, active lifestyle in an environment that is unique. Before AdvancedMD, I had come out here quite a bit to ski. But what I have learned since moving here is that the summers are just as nice as or better than the winters. For me, moving to Utah has been a great experience and I really enjoy it. The people are good, hardworking and have good values.

Silicon Slopes: What have you learned from doing business in a down-cycle?  

Eric Morgan: If the solution you are selling makes the customer more efficient, more productive, more profitable….that helps you to keep going through the tough times. For example, last year AdvancedMD was hiring while other technology businesses in different sectors were not.  We were able to provide raises to most of our employees, improve our healthcare coverage and implement a 401K match. We did tighten our belt on a few things, but we continued to grow profitably.

Silicon Slopes: In January AdvancedMD announced the acquisition of PracticeOne. How will this acquisition impact AdvancedMD and its customers?

Eric Morgan: With the acquisition of the SaaSbased electronic health records or EHR technology from PracticeOne, we feel the company is now positioned to compete with the leading vendors for both practice management and EHR—whether on a SaaS platform or traditional on-premises solutions. Over the next several months, our engineering teams will integrate the acquired product with our existing SaaS-based billing and scheduling solution to create a Medical Practice Optimization platform, thereby enabling AdvancedMD to offer a unified clinical and business system that shares a common database. We believe this will give us a competitive advantage on two fronts: Many of our competitors have not integrated their EHR and practice management functions on a singled database, which makes using the product more difficult and clumsy for their customers. Additionally, we have combined a strong clinical product with a strong billing and collections product. Many of our competitors are weak on one side or the other.

Silicon Slopes: As AdvancedMD continues to grow, do you plan to remain fully based in Utah? 

Eric Morgan: Our Corporate Headquarters will stay in Utah, however, with the acquisition of PracticeOne, AdvancedMD now has offices in Washington state and California. We also have employees who work remotely from their home.  

Silicon Slopes: Can you talk about your company in terms of employee hiring needs over the coming year?

Eric Morgan: We expect to continue to hire across the board over the next several years as we grow. We have a history of hiring mostly local talent. In our experience, there is a great supply of quality individuals in the Salt Lake Valley. I have also recently recruited two executives from out of state, both of which are moving to Utah because of the great opportunity.