Billing company CHMB Solutions and Allscripts have entered into a partnership that will provide support to California physicians as they begin the change over to electronic health records.

CHMB Solutions will offer Allscripts' EHR and practice management solution to its nearly 500 clients and other California physician practices to provide them with vital patient information that will not require major investments in hardware or IT resources on their part.

CHMB is one of the largest California-based providers of outsourced business services for physician practices, including billing, IT support and application service provider solutions such as practice management software.

Janet Boos, president of CHMB Solutions, said choosing Allscripts as a partner will enable CHMB to help their clients improve patient care and practice management.

"Our physician practices want the latest technology delivered quickly and affordably but with world-class implementation, training and support, and this agreement with Allscripts brings them solutions that are proven and that work," Boos said.

CHMB initially will provide application hosting, implementation, training and ongoing support of Allscripts for 250 physicians. Over the next two to three years, the group expects to host Allscripts for 400 to 500 physicians.

According to Bob Svendsen, chief executive officer of CHMB Solutions, fewer than 10 percent of the company's clients have deployed an EHR.

"The majority of our clients will be making an EHR decision over the next few years, and we think they'll be impressed by our ability to provide a single-source solution that frees them from having to make capital investments or acquire additional technology resources," he said.

"By offering our solution via the ASP model with local and regional support and implementation, CHMB will help improve the quality of care that their physician clients deliver and ultimately lower the cost of running a medical practice," said Glen Tullman, CEO of Allscripts.