Nuance Acquires J.A. Thomas in Strategy to Revolutionize Clinical

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Nuance Acquires J.A. Thomas in Strategy
to Revolutionize Clinical Documentation for Transition to ICD-10
Physician-Centered CDI Programs Integrated with Nuance’s Enhanced Clinical
Language Understanding Platform Drive Better Documentation, Coding,
Reimbursement and Care
AHIMA CONFERENCE Chicago, October, 1, 2012 – Nuance Communications, Inc.
(NASDAQ: NUAN) announced that it has acquired J.A. Thomas and Associates (JATA), the
nation’s premier provider of physician-oriented, clinical documentation improvement (CDI)
programs for the healthcare industry.
JATA helped establish the CDI industry and for more than two decades has provided technology
and professional services that improve clinical documentation for healthcare providers. Its
managed, end-to-end CDI solution has helped more than 500 hospitals improve patient care
documentation by starting the CDI process with the physician at the point of care, resulting in
more accurate and complete clinical documentation.
With JATA integrated into a single platform for end-to-end clinical documentation, the
combined Nuance Healthcare solution is creating a revolutionary process for hospitals to
efficiently transition to ICD-10 through the creation of more clinically accurate documentation.
Nuance will deliver this capability by integrating the CDI strategies from JATA into Nuance’s
Clinical Language Understanding (CLU) technology. Nuance CLU, enhanced with JATA CDI
strategies, will power both Dragon Medical 360 physician solutions and Quantim HIM
computer-assisted coding (CAC) and CDI solutions, creating a bridge between the clinically
accurate patient record and the ICD-10 coded information.
“By integrating the clinical documentation improvement process into the physician workflow
and leveraging CLU enhanced with JATA strategies, physicians can create the most accurate
clinical documentation at the point of care,” said Janet Dillione, executive vice president and
general manager, Nuance Healthcare. “Together, we will help organizations improve efficiency,
achieve the highest levels of clinical accuracy and appropriate reimbursement for the care
provided so caregivers can focus on what’s most important, taking care of patients.”
Highlights of the transaction include:

Complexity of ICD-10 Creating Need – The impending transition from ICD-9 to ICD10 is forcing hospitals to re-evaluate their process and systems related to clinical
documentation, quality reporting and coding as they shift from the current standard with
17,000 procedure codes to more than 155,000 codes in ICD-10. This transition places
significant burdens on all aspects of the documentation process, most notably physician
workflow, documentation accuracy and coder productivity.

Demand for Integrated Solutions – Nuance will deliver the industry’s only end-to-end
clinically oriented documentation, CDI and coding solution with Nuance CLU and
enhanced with JATA CDI strategies to bridge clinical documentation and ICD-10 coding.

Nuance Differentiated Offerings – The combination of JATA with Nuance’s Dragon
Medical 360 solutions provides a more accurate and complete clinical document at the
point-of-care. The integration of Nuance’s CLU with the Quantim HIM platform will
improve coder productivity and ensure that the clinical information is accurately
expressed in ICD-10 codes for reimbursement and quality reporting.

Customer Benefits from Nuance Solution – This integrated, single system approach
will assist hospitals in achieving ICD-10 compliance while creating more clinically
accurate documentation that better reflects the true severity of illness and risk of
mortality of their patient populations. Further, by applying resources and procedures
already familiar to physicians and the support team, this new documentation process can
be implemented without forcing physicians to adjust their documentation practices while
transitioning to the new ICD-10 coding standards.

Significant Market Opportunities – With more than 450,000 clinicians using a Dragon
Medical 360 solution for clinical documentation, Nuance is already a trusted partner for
thousands of hospitals and its integrated clinical documentation solution from the
combination of Nuance, JATA and Quantim are a natural path for these hospitals as they
transition to ICD-10. Today, only 600 hospitals use a comprehensive CDI and coding
solution, with this number expected to grow to 2,400 hospitals by 2015.
“The J.A. Thomas and Quantim transactions build upon the strength of our fourth quarter and
fiscal year 2012 performance and will be accretive in our fiscal year 2013,” said Paul Ricci,
chairman and CEO of Nuance. “In combination, these acquisitions leverage our natural language
understanding technology investment in a new growth market.”
Nuance plans to quickly deliver these solutions to support a more efficient transition to ICD-10
and deliver better financial results for customers. For more information about this announcement
and the benefits it will bring to healthcare provider organizations, please visit
http://www.nuance.com/for-healthcare/index.htm.
Nuance Healthcare
Nuance Healthcare, a division of Nuance Communications, is the market leader in providing
clinical understanding solutions that accurately capture and transform the patient story into
meaningful, actionable information. Thousands of hospitals, providers and payers worldwide
trust Nuance voice-enabled clinical documentation and analytics solutions to facilitate smarter,
more efficient decisions across the healthcare enterprise.
About J.A. Thomas & Associates, Inc.
Since 1991, J.A. Thomas & Associates has become the nationally recognized leader in healthcare
compliance and documentation improvement. Our innovative Compliant Documentation
Management Program® has helped hospitals and physicians nationwide improve CMI by an
average of four to eight percent. The firm was founded by clinical professionals who brought
together clinical and business insights from doctors, nurses, coders and administrators. The result
is a program that blends clinical expertise with compliance to ensure the accuracy of clinical
documentation reflecting the appropriate severity of illness. For more information, please
visit www.jathomas.com.
About Nuance Communications, Inc
Nuance Communications, Inc. (NASDAQ: NUAN) is a leading provider of voice and language
solutions for businesses and consumers around the world. Its technologies, applications and
services make the user experience more compelling by transforming the way people interact with
devices and systems. Every day, millions of users and thousands of businesses experience
Nuance’s proven applications. For more information, please visit www.nuance.com.
Nuance and the Nuance logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Nuance
Communications, Inc. or its subsidiaries in the United States of America and/or other countries.
All other company names or product names may be the trademarks of their respective owners.
Statements in this press release regarding the expected benefits to Nuance and its customers of
the J.A. Thomas acquisition, anticipated future combined operations, products and services, and
any other statements regarding future expectations, beliefs, goals, plans or prospects constitute
forward looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of
1995. Any statements that are not statements of historical fact (including statements containing
the words “will,” “expected,” and other similar expressions) should also be considered to be
forward looking statements. There are a number of important factors that could cause actual
results or events to differ materially from those indicated by such forward looking statements,
including: the transaction is subject to closing conditions that if not met or waived would cause
the transaction not to close; the ability of Nuance to successfully integrate J.A. Thomas’s
operations, product offerings and employees; the ability to realize anticipated synergies and cost
savings; the failure to retain customers and/or key employees; and the other factors described in
Nuance's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended September 30, 2011, and other
filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Nuance disclaims any intention or
obligation to update any forward looking statements as a result of developments occurring after
the date of this press release.
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