ProxyMed:

Connectivity means everything to PROXYMED (PILL). The company links doctors, insurance companies, practice-management providers and laboratories, and enables them to check a patient's lab results, order prescriptions, check insurance eligibility, and buy medical and office supplies at its site, www.proxymed.com. PROXYMED says it has 700 clients and keeps records on 86 million patients. It provides online access to such research libraries as Medline and MDX Health Digest. It also has an online formulary that enables physicians to screen drugs against more than 150 managed care formularies. It recently established an agreement with IDX SYSTEMS (IDXC) to provide access to its 110,000 physician members. The company losses widened in 3Q99 to $0.10 per share, from flat earnings a year ago. It is forecast to lose $0.13 per share for 1999, its fifth consecutive year of red ink. Nevertheless, Mark Mulcahy, equity research analyst for Pacific Growth Equities, reiterated his STRONG BUY on the company's stock. He said it has reached "the point of critical mass essential for nationwide connectivity." He has a 12-month price target of $24. With the average pharmaceutical stock in the Standard & Poor' s Index down 5.0% through Oct. 29, S&P' s measure of specialized health care services plunged 59.6%, the biggest loss of any industry it tracks. Revenues are ebbing amid fears Medicare rates in the United States will be reduced.