1. H.I.S.-tory
by Vince Ciotti
Episode #115:
McKesson
Part 4 = HBOC
A 1980’s scan from Walt Huff himself:
Standing: left = Tom Muller, center =
John Lawless, right = King Deets, right
front = Jim Napier. Seated = Walt Huff
© 2013 by H.I.S. Professionals, LLC, all rights reserved.

2. HBOC’s Product Line Grows
• By the late 70s, HBOC’s MEDPRO has swept the mid-sized hospital
data collection market with over 200 clients, but the Four Phase
mini was just about maxed out. Even super-techie Bruce
Barrington was reluctant to add more of the missing pieces to it
(likeLIS and financials) and still keep up rapid response times.
• In 1975, HBOC scored one of its biggest
contracts with Humana, who hired Urban
Gerber from Perot to install MEDPRO in its
30 hospitals. When Humana acquired
American Medicorps in 1978, they now had
scores of hospitals running SMS’s shared
financials to convert, so Walt & Co. set up a
subsidiary in Louisville to start writing a minibased financial system headed up by Urban.
Urban brought in Bill Brehmfrom SMS as his
partner (see episode 22 at hispros.com).

3. Gerber-Brehm and Associates
• Urban & Bill’s eponymous firm started writing their financial
system on a Four Phase, but it just couldn’t handle the batchprocessing challenges, so after some fitful “4φ” mini starts, they
settled on an HP3000 box, a more powerful minicomputer.
• They called their new system the “Integrated
Financial &Administrative System” or IFAS for
short. The pilot hospital was the Sisters of the
Holy Cross, a large MEDPRO client, who insisted
on demos showing progress each month before
making their next payment. When the system was
finally completed, Walt merged the “secret” GBA
subsidiary into HBOC, and now the combined
package of MEDPRO and IFAS let HBOC compete
with all the other mini vendors with clinical and
financial systems like DCC, JS Data, SAI, etc.

4. Adding Apps, But Losing People
• As much as adding IFAS to its portfolio helped HBOC grow, 2 of
the firm’s original co-founders departed around the 1981 IPO:
– Bruce Barrington – the programming maven who wrote most
of CRASH (HFC), SHIS (HPC) and MEDPRO, left HBOC and in
1982 formed Clarion Software in Pompano Beach, Florida.
Clarion Professional Developer (CPD, aka Clarion), allowed PC
users to rapidly create programs without the add-ons like data
bases required by conventional development tools, similar to
what was provided by minicomputer vendors like Four Phase.
In 91 Bruce licensed a compiler from Jensen &
Partners International (JPI), and in 1992 he
merged Clarion& JPI, re-named them as
TopSpeed Inc., serving as Chairman. Clarion
evolved through many releases over the years
(just like HBO!). Bruce is 2nd from the left in this
rare photo of him at a Clarion users group.

5. Another Departure
• The third member of the original founders, Dick Owens, also left
around the time of the IPO. Dick and his wife Hootie were from
Missouri with humble backgrounds, and moved to Peoria where
Dick joined OSF in 1960, working for DP Manager Urban Gerber.
He became expert in internal hospital operations and headed up
installations of CRASH & SHIS. When Bruce left OSF to start
writing MEDPRO, he asked Dick to join him. "With only a small
house and one car, it was a big risk," remembers Dick. His dad
told the family that "this would either make me or break me."
HBO sure “made” Dick and he spent his time after
early retirement on philanthropic endeavors.
"Angels in tennis shoes," says a lifelong friend. "You
would never guess they were wealthy people. They
loved to give…but never wanted any thanks.” Dick
sadly passed away in 2003, and his wife pledged $2
million to build OSF’s “Owens Hospice Home.”

6. And a Third Vet Leaves
• Walt’s own words on Urban: “Gerber then became disenchanted
at HBO and left to start Gerber-Alley. And you’re right he died
way too early. He was a friend and a good competitor.”
• Another HIS-Talk reader recalls Urban, who passed in 1984:
– “I recently stumbled upon your H.I.S.-tory articles when I was looking for
information on Urban Gerber. I knew Urban when I worked at a Humana
hospital back in the mid ‘70s and he was the Corporate IT Director. I found
your article interesting for a number of reasons. For one, I later worked at
a hospital system in Knoxville, TN, that used the IFAS system and I never
knew of Urban’s involvement in its development. Also, I currently work at a
system that still utilizes The Precision Alternative (TPA). I was aware of
Urban’s involvement with that application since it started as a Gerber-Alley
application and later purchased by HBOC. Urban was certainly one of the
most enthusiastic IT guys I have ever known and always seemingly full of
energy. It is a shame he left us as young as he did.”
Wayne Carney , Executive Director - Patient Financial Services Baptist
Health, Louisville, Kentucky wcarney@bhsi.com

7. While Another Pioneer Joins
• The acquisition of IFAS from Gerber-Brehm was only the first of
numerous acquisitions by HBOC in the 1980s. The next in a wave
of both mini and mega-dealsinvolved another HIS-tory pioneer:
• Ralph Korpman - a pathologist working for Technicon in the
1970s, who left in 1976 to found his own LIS firm called Medical
Data Corporation (MDC) in Loma Linda. Lab was one of the few
gaps in MEDPRO as LIS modules (microbiology, AP, blood bank,
etc.) were very complex and were purchased from specialty
vendors in the 70s, like Meditech (their HIS = 1980s). Walt & co.
bought MDC in 1981 after the IPO gave HBOC deep pockets.
• Korpman stayed with HBOC as a consultant
(official title was “Chief Scientist”) for a few
years, and his MDC system was renamed
“ClinPro” by HBOC. He left to form Health
Data Sciences in 1983, whose UltiCare
pioneered the use of CRTs at the bedside.

8. Correction
• My (again) sloppy writing
confused folks last week:
– Dan Mowery from
McKesson introduced
me to many HBO
veterans,including:
– Dan La Benne – who
provided me with many
inside stories and the
classic pictures of the
trailer, Walt’s first desk,
and this gem on the
right about many other
HBO folks who earned 5year awards in 1981:

9. Mega-Merger #1
• In 1985, HBOC consummated two deals
that greatly increased its product line
and market presence. The first was:
– Amherst Associates – a consulting
giant whose hospital management
expertise was reflected by Modern
Healthcare rating them in 1984 as the
largest healthcare consulting firm
outside of the accounting industry
(viz:“The Big Eight”). The addition of
Amherst’s experts led to the creation
of HBOC’s TrendStar system for:
• Cost Accounting, Decision
Support, and Executive
Information Systems (EIS)

10. Mega-Merger # 2
• HBOC expanded beyond the world of minis with this next
acquisition: Mediflex, whose MediPac accounting system was the
leading software vendor in the lucrative IBM mainframe world.
• Mediflexwas the IT subsidiary of Medicus, a
leading facilities management (FM) firm in
the 70s. The developed MediPac in COBOL
on VSAM files at Evanston Hospital in IL, a
major FM client of theirs. When
Mediflexwent public before HBOC’s
acquisition, I remember reading with dismay
how their listing gave a financial
arrangement with Evanston Hospital that
provided for a ≈$75K payment for every site
visit they conducted:
• A caveat emptor even for today! Do you
ever ask that question on a site visit??

11. A Much Bigger HBOC
• The addition of Amherst and Mediflexmade HBOC a giant that
suddenly challenged HIS industry leaders like SMS and McAuto.
Their product line now covered the full range of beds & apps:
– Turnkey Minicomputer-Based systems:
• MEDPRO and CLINPRO – which were renamed MEDSTAR
and CLINSTAR when they switched from 4φ to DG minis
• IFAS – financials running on the powerful HP3000 minis
• GALAXY – small-hospital HIS running on Four Phase minis
– Inhouse & Remote Processed Mainframe systems:
• MEDIPAC – financials eventually renamed HealthQuest
– PC-based systems (by the end of the 80s):
• TRENDSTAR – evolved out of Amherst &Medicus’ Cost
Accounting, DSS and EIS systems, that started on shared
DEC minis and IBM mainframes respectively (got that?).

12. New Management Team
• Walt made room for a number of new executives from the two
acquired companies, shown below in Dan’s photo from 1985:

13. HBO’s Rapid Rise
• By the end of the 1980s, the combined products & people of
HBOC, Amherst &Mediflex catapulted them to the #2 position in
the HIS industry in annual revenue, per my calculations below:

14. Merger-Mania Continues
• Next week we’ll trace HBOC’s rash of mergers in the
1990s, leading up to their biggest deal of all when tried
to acquire McKesson at the end of the decade (yes,
Virginia, HBOC tired to gobble them up first!):
– 1994 = IBAX – the combo of IBM and Baxter with
several HIS pioneering vendors subsumed within
– 1994 = Serving Software – hospital resource management
– 1995 = ALS - one of the earliest & largest LISspecailists
– 1995 = FDC – Amex’s IT division comprised of SAI & McAuto
– 1995 = Pegasus – the Smart Medical Record was an early EMR
– 1996 = CyCare – a leading Practice Management vendor in CA
– 1997 = Amisys, Enterprise Systems and Nat. Health Enhance.
– 1998 = Imnet – imaging precursor to Horizon Patient Folder