Last week Experian Health, maker of a healthcare revenue cycle management platform and other health IT enterprise tools, announced that it signed an agreement to acquire Nashville-based digital care coordination company MyHealthDirect. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
"Experian Health’s mission is to use data-driven insight to connect and simplify healthcare for all,” Jennifer Schulz, Experian group president overseeing Experian Health, said in a statement. “Joining with MyHealthDirect will further propel how we deliver on that mission, giving us the potential to evolve our front-end patient access and patient engagement capabilities by creating solutions that improve consumer convenience while optimizing care across healthcare providers.”
MyHealthDirect was founded in 2006 and builds technology that helps patients access and schedule their care, whether that be through a web or mobile app, via call centers or inside the provider’s office. The tool seeks to increase efficiency for providers and plans, and according to the company has increased appointment and referral rates as well as reduced no-shows.
Experian Health, for its part, offers a broad range of care coordination, identity management, patient engagement and other support through its revenue cycle management platform. The company says that it currently works with more than 3,400 hospitals and 7,300 other healthcare organizations across 44 countries.
WHAT’S THE IMPACT
Both companies see the acquisition as a chance to more broadly deploy tools that can help patients initiate their own care and avoid frustrations that could harm their experience.
Similarly, MyHealthDirect CEO Tom Cox said in a statement that his company is eager to continue its development of these technologies with the added benefit of Experian’s financial support.
“MyHealthDirect and Experian will realize mutual benefits around market expansion, product development and enhancement, and best in class data solutions,” Tom Cox, CEO of MyHealthDirect, said in a statement. “We are also looking forward to the resources Experian brings to the table, which will accelerate the development of very unique products and capabilities that will clearly differentiate Experian from others in the category.”
THE LARGER TREND
Last week’s deal adds to the dozens of digital health and health technology M&As closed this year. Rock Health pegged the number at 43 as of its recent H1 2019 report, which is somewhat of a decline compared to recent years.
There are also handful of other digital health takes on patient-friendly appointment scheduling tools currently in the wild. Examples include CareWire’s texting and appointment scheduling tool — also acquired this year by medical communications firm PerfectServe — or Zocdoc’s mobile app.
