Etransmedia Wins Multi-Million Dollar Award against Allscripts Healthcare in High-Profile Deceptive Business Practice Case

Troy, Nov. 6, 2014 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- After a hard-fought trial, Etransmedia Technology, Inc. won a decisive victory when an arbitration panel in Raleigh, North Carolina ruled that Allscripts Healthcare, LLC MDRX, with offices in Chicago, and Raleigh, NC, had breached its partner agreement with Etransmedia, and violated the North Carolina Unfair and Deceptive Trade Practices Act.

The three-person arbitration panel found that Allscripts unfairly profited by inducing Etransmedia to pre-purchase Allscripts MyWay™ software licenses by assuring Etransmedia that Allscripts would make the product compliant with Medicare law and then failed to do so. Most notably, the Panel ruled that Allscripts "deliberately sabotaged" Etransmedia's sales efforts.

Allscripts promoted the fact that its products, including MyWay, designed for small practices, would satisfy government 'meaningful use' requirements enacted as part of the Health Information Technology for Economic and Clinical Health ("HITECH") Act of 2009.  On October 5, 2012, however, Allscripts announced that it was phasing out MyWay.

The following were among the panel's findings: 

• Allscripts sought and obtained the benefit of increasing its financial performance numbers by inducing Etransmedia to pre-purchase Allscripts MyWay™ licenses by assuring Etransmedia that Allscripts would make MyWay MU2 and ICD-10 compliant and then failed to do so.
• Allscripts failed to show that its offer to substitute its Allscripts Professional product was a commercially reasonable proposition. Allscripts breached the partner agreement, and Allscripts' offer regarding the substitution of Professional for MyWay was not commercially reasonable under the circumstances of the case.
• Allscripts assured Etransmedia of its support of MyWay sales through a program marketed at Costco Wholesale, and in connection with community sales programs. In fact, Allscripts' Sales Team undertook steps that "deliberately sabotaged Etransmedia's efforts to sell the licenses it had pre-purchased at Allscripts' behest."

Etransmedia had been a reseller of MyWay and also hosted data for many of its MyWay clients.  At the time of Allscripts' October 5, 2012 announcement, Etransmedia's had accumulated millions of dollars of inventory in unsold licenses. 

Vikram Agrawal, President/CEO of Etransmedia commented on the ruling, "It was a hard-fought victory for a company of our size against a giant $1.4 billion publicly traded company like Allscripts. We presented the facts, and the arbitration panel concluded that Allscripts took advantage of us through its deceptive trade practices.  We stood up for what we believe, and were proven right."

"We believe this will have a far-reaching impact for companies like ours," said Vikash Agrawal, Chairman. "Despite the better part of two years of legal process, and significant costs, we did not allow this to be a distraction - we continued to focus on our own growth. We have developed our proprietary Connect2Care^® product suite to strengthen our position as technology innovators in the healthcare industry."

Partners Thomas Fallati and William J. Keniry, and associate Dana Salazar, attorneys with Tabner, Ryan and Keniry, represented Etransmedia in this case. Commenting on the ruling, Mr. Fallati said, "We are obviously thrilled with the Panel's ruling. We worked closely with our client to present a solid case that was beyond dispute."  http://trklaw.com

About Etransmedia

Founded in 2000, Etransmedia delivers, software and technology enabled Revenue Cycle Management services to the healthcare industry. The innovative and proprietary Connect2Care^®suite delivers a comprehensive software and service package to ensure financial and clinical results for healthcare providers. The platform includes; Patient Engagement, Mobile Apps, Care Coordination, Financial Analytics, Practice Management, and Electronic Health Records. To learn more: www.etransmedia.com