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

Cloud computing vendor athenahealth announced Monday that it would be jointly obtained by affiliate marketers of Bain Funds and Hellman & Friedman for $seventeen billion.

The firm, which offers electronic health and fitness record and health practitioner apply tools, said the investment was expected to be finished in the initially quarter of 2022.  

Chair and CEO Bob Segert will proceed in his position, said athenahealth in a press release, as will the existing administration workforce.  

“Our staff members, customers and associates are the supply of our achievements and inspiration as we generate a flourishing ecosystem that provides accessible, superior-quality and sustainable health care for all,” said Segert in a assertion.  

WHY IT Matters

Athenahealth, which was obtained by non-public equity corporations Veritas Funds and Evergreen Coastline Funds in 2019 for $5.7 billion, states it presently associates with additional than a hundred and forty,000 ambulatory treatment companies in all fifty states and across additional than a hundred and twenty specialties.  

In 2020, athenahealth launched a new EHR-embedded telehealth tool. According to Jessica Sweeney-Platt, vice president of investigate and editorial technique, the firm has offered 18.4 million digital appointments above the earlier calendar year.  

“Nowadays marks a important milestone for athenahealth and our partnership with Veritas Funds and Evergreen Coastline Funds, and we are thrilled to operate with Hellman & Friedman and Bain Funds to generate the upcoming period of our expansion journey,” said Segert.  

But the vendor has also faced hurdles.   

Right before that acquisition – which bundled a merger with Virence Wellness, also owned by Veritas – the firm experienced confronted issues, including an activist trader marketing 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. Office of Justice announced that the firm agreed to fork out $18.25 million to take care of Untrue Statements Act violation allegations. A spokesperson for the firm said it admitted no wrongdoing beneath the settlement.  

Nevertheless, the firm’s new homeowners voiced optimism for its upcoming expansion.  

“Given our deep encounter in software and health care, we are fired up to operate with Bob and the government workforce to quickly scale the small business and proceed to innovate and develop along with our most disruptive and ground breaking ambulatory treatment customers to build the foundations of a multi-sided electronic treatment community involving client, payer and provider,” Allen Thorpe, spouse at Hellman & Friedman, said in a assertion.  

THE Much larger Pattern  

November has witnessed various large cash moves in the health and fitness IT house, with software-as-a-services firm EverCommerce announcing its new possession of EHR vendor DrChrono and the recently launched FemTec Wellness acquiring natural beauty box firm Birchbox and social marketing platform Liquid Grids.

Meanwhile, GE said it would spin off its health care division, GE Health care, in early 2023. Virence Wellness, which merged with athenahealth, was once GE Healthcare’s value-primarily based treatment arm.  

ON THE Report  

“About the program of our successful partnership with Bob and the administration workforce, athenahealth has pushed tremendous expansion and transformation, reinforcing its position as the premier health care IT firm supporting the most significant nationwide community of health care companies,” Ramzi Musallam, CEO and controlling spouse of Veritas Funds, said in a assertion.  

“Adhering to our consider-non-public and blend with Virence in 2019, athenahealth delivered unrivaled value to its shoppers by drastically growing R&D investment resulting in greater good quality treatment, decreased costs across the health care ecosystem and general improved client results,” he said.

 

Kat Jercich is senior editor of Health care IT News.
Twitter: @kjercich
E-mail: [email protected]
Health care IT News is a HIMSS Media publication.