Athenahealth bought by private equity firms Hellman & Friedman, Bain Capital

Cloud computing seller athenahealth declared Monday that it would be jointly acquired by affiliates of Bain Capital and Hellman & Friedman for $seventeen billion.

The company, which offers electronic wellbeing history and health practitioner exercise instruments, explained the expense was predicted to be concluded in the initial quarter of 2022.  

Chair and CEO Bob Segert will continue on in his place, explained athenahealth in a push launch, as will the present-day management crew.  

“Our staff, customers and partners are the source of our good results and inspiration as we make a thriving ecosystem that provides accessible, substantial-quality and sustainable health care for all,” explained Segert in a statement.  

WHY IT Matters

Athenahealth, which was acquired by personal equity corporations Veritas Capital and Evergreen Coastline Capital in 2019 for $five.7 billion, says it now partners with additional than one hundred forty,000 ambulatory treatment suppliers in all 50 states and across additional than one hundred twenty specialties.  

In 2020, athenahealth introduced a new EHR-embedded telehealth resource. According to Jessica Sweeney-Platt, vice president of investigation and editorial tactic, the company has made available 18.four million digital appointments around the past year.  

“Today marks a considerable milestone for athenahealth and our partnership with Veritas Capital and Evergreen Coastline Capital, and we are thrilled to function with Hellman & Friedman and Bain Capital to travel the next section of our development journey,” explained Segert.  

But the seller has also faced hurdles.   

In advance of that acquisition – which incorporated a merger with Virence Well being, also owned by Veritas – the company experienced confronted issues, together with an activist investor campaign from Elliott Management the stepdown of founder and previous CEO Jonathan Bush amid allegations of sexual harassment and domestic abuse and layoffs of nine% of the workforce.    

And this January, the U.S. Department of Justice declared that the company agreed to shell out $18.twenty five million to resolve Untrue Statements Act violation allegations. A spokesperson for the company explained it admitted no wrongdoing underneath the settlement.  

Nevertheless, the firm’s new homeowners voiced optimism for its potential development.  

“Offered our deep experience in program and health care, we are thrilled to function with Bob and the government crew to rapidly scale the small business and continue on to innovate and develop along with our most disruptive and modern ambulatory treatment consumers to create the foundations of a multi-sided electronic treatment community among affected individual, payer and service provider,” Allen Thorpe, lover at Hellman & Friedman, explained in a statement.  

THE Greater Pattern  

November has viewed several huge funds moves in the wellbeing IT room, with program-as-a-services company EverCommerce asserting its new ownership of EHR vendor DrChrono and the recently introduced FemTec Well being buying attractiveness box company Birchbox and social internet marketing platform Liquid Grids.

Meanwhile, GE explained it would spin off its health care division, GE Healthcare, in early 2023. Virence Well being, which merged with athenahealth, was the moment GE Healthcare’s benefit-based mostly treatment arm.  

ON THE Report  

“Around the system of our profitable partnership with Bob and the management crew, athenahealth has driven large development and transformation, reinforcing its place as the premier health care IT company supporting the major nationwide community of health care suppliers,” Ramzi Musallam, CEO and handling lover of Veritas Capital, explained in a statement.  

“Pursuing our just take-personal and blend with Virence in 2019, athenahealth sent unrivaled benefit to its shoppers by drastically rising R&D expense ensuing in increased top quality treatment, decreased expenses across the health care ecosystem and all round improved affected individual results,” he explained.

 

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Healthcare IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
Electronic mail: [email protected]
Healthcare IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.