Thomas will succeed Julie Klapstein upon her retirement in March, 2012. "I'm excited to build upon these accomplishments as Availity's next CEO. With the continued support of our owners, customers, and employees, I know that Availity will achieve its mission of becoming the highest valued health information network in the industry," said Thomas.

Health information network Availity is launching a new professional development product that will provide continuing education to hospital and medical group practice administrators, managers, office and billing staff. The Health Care Business Expert Series, accessible through the Availity Learning Center, begins Nov. 3.

RealMed, a leading provider of revenue cycle management solutions for the health care industry, is pleased to announce integration of its award winning capabilities with Epic. The integration provides Epic billing software clients with seamless access to RealMed's powerful claims editing and error management tools from within the same interface used for processing claims today. The result is cleaner claims and fewer rejections by the health plans, speeding the critical payment process for the physician practice.

Growing financial pressure on physicians prompts CHP, the largest health system in Ohio, to implement RealMed tools so affiliates can collect payment more efficiently.