Kareo acquires medical billing company ECCO Health

Kareo, provider of cloud-based medical office software and services for small practices, has acquired medical billing and practice-management company ECCO Health.

The acquisition of the Las Vegas company is expected to grow Kareo's medical billing services, particularly in the wake of the Irvine, Calif., company's January launch of Kareo Billing Services. And just last month, Kareo announced the integration of its practice-management application with Demandforce's marketing and communications tools.

Financial terms of this latest deal were not disclosed. The transaction builds on an existing relationship between the two privately-held companies—which together claim more than 500 medical practices as customers. In 2010, ECCO health selected Kareo as its medical billing software provider.

“The strengths of Kareo's practice management and EHR applications have been a key element of our success with our customers over time,” Jim Sholeff, ECCO Health founder and partner, said in a news release.

In addition to billing services, ECCO Health offers physician credentialing, front office services and best practice consulting across a variety of specialties.

The combined company serves more than 20,000 providers through the revenue-cycle management market. It's a growing business, according to analysis by Frost and Sullivan, which reported in June that revenue in the market is expected to grow to $14.6 billion by 2016, from $11.1 billion last year.

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