HEALTHEON: Announces Plans For IPO
"[I]n a high-profile bet that investors will like its ambitious bid to manage medical information on the Internet," Healtheon Corp. has "filed plans to go public." The Wall Street Journal reports that it is unknown how many shares, or at what price, the company plans to sell. And while the initial public offering is sure to garner attention, "the company's hopes of using the Internet to handle medical record-keeping, doctors' bills and the like are far from a sure thing." According to Netscape founder and Healtheon Chair James Clark, the company had "originally hoped to make most of its money helping health plans and employers enroll new members via the Internet." But that strategy did not work as planned, so now Healtheon is "concentrat[ing] its efforts on serving physicians and preferred-provider organizations that deal with many doctors." Its biggest clients are Brown & Toland Physician Services Organization, a San Francisco-based doctors group, and Beech Street Corp., a Southern California PPO (Anders, 8/5).
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