Noteworthy M&A Transactions – March 2019

March 2019 M&A activity highlighted continued momentum on several compelling themes:

1. Social Determinants of Health and Community Engagement: Healthcare payers and providers are seeking ways to address negative healthcare outcomes driven by conditions present in the places where people live, learn, work, and interact. Collectively, these conditions are known as social determinants of health (SDoH). By developing and refining solutions, healthcare technology and services vendors are creating environments that promote good health for all populations. We have observed this shift become present especially in community engagement programs, where positive change in healthcare can often be delivered most effectively to at-risk populations.
2. Virtual Health: Coinciding with the rise of consumer empowerment, patients are seeking flexibility and optionality in the way they receive healthcare. Simply put, the healthcare consumer is demanding affordable, mobile alternatives to in-person care experiences. As such, healthcare providers are increasingly expanding their virtual presence. We are seeing virtual health services expand beyond routine primary care visits and into adjacent care segments, including behavioral health.  
3. Technologies Targeting Quality in Healthcare: Improving the quality of care is one of the core tenets of value-based care. Quality initiatives have become a key focus of payers and providers alike, as they have embarked on initiatives to improve and monitor processes as well as quantify improvements in the quality of care delivered to members and patients. We are seeing this trend manifest as third party vendors target quality improvement capabilities through expansive platforms and targeted point solutions, both of which can effect positive change for payers and providers.

Several transactions announced in March align with these themes:

• Signify Health, a provider of technology-enabled, in-home care and complex care management services announced that it acquired TAVHealth, a platform for collaborating with risk-bearing and community-based organizations to address social determinants of health. Signify Health manages a nationwide network of 4,000 doctors and nurse practitioners delivering healthcare services in the home to over a million unique Medicare Advantage members each year. While in the home, Signify clinicians frequently identify SDOH needs, ranging from food insecurity, transportation issues, and other factors, capture them in Signify’s technology platform, and therefore enable case management referrals. The acquisition of TAVHealth adds a curated network of community-based organizations and the technology capabilities for Signify to directly manage these SDOH needs on behalf of its clients, creating a closed loop between identification of SDOH needs, enrollment into SDOH programs, and coordination of services to better manage and improve health outcomes for members. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

• Unite Us, a care coordination and outcome tracking platform connecting healthcare and social service providers, announced $35M in Series B funding led by Oak HC/FT, with participation from Town Hall Ventures and Define Ventures. In addition, existing investors Scout Ventures, Luminate and New York Ventures also participated in the round. This latest round brings the company’s total funding to ~$45M. Unite Us will use the funding to fuel growth as it continues to curate coordinated networks bringing together health systems, payers, government agencies and community-based organizations to provide citizens the quality services they need to improve their health and live their best possible lives.

• Tabula Rasa HealthCare, a healthcare technology company advancing the field of medication safety announced that it acquired PrescribeWellness in a transaction valued at $150M. PrescribeWellness is a leading cloud-based patient relationship management solutions company that facilitates collaboration between more than 10,000 pharmacies with patients, payers, providers and pharmaceutical companies. This acquisition supports TRHC’s goals of expanding medication risk mitigation programs in community pharmacies and providing community pharmacists with clinical revenue opportunities beyond dispensing.  It also enables TRHC to further participate in Medicare Part D Medication Therapy Management programs, and other similar programs, which require or can benefit from the involvement of community pharmacies.

• AbleTo, a provider of virtual behavioral healthcare proven to improve clinical outcomes and lower costs, announced that it acquired Joyable, an app-based digital therapy innovator. The acquisition strengthens AbleTo’s behavioral health offerings with a digital platform that delivers clinically-based therapies supported by coaches to help individuals overcome depression, generalized anxiety, and social anxiety. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

• Teladoc Health, a leader in virtual care, entered into an agreement to acquire MédecinDirect. MédecinDirect is a mobile platform, providing professional services and answers to consumer medical questions via telephone and internet. The acquisition will expand Teladoc Health’s global outreach into France, emphasizing the markets demand for virtual care. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

• Veradigm, an Allscripts business unit, announced that it strengthened its strategic relationship with Pulse8, a leader in healthcare analytics and technology company. Pulse8 delivers a complete enterprise platform to provide visibility into the efficacy of Risk Adjustment, Quality Improvement, and Pharmacy Management programs.  Pulse8 enables both health plans and at-risk providers to achieve precise risk and quality scores in the Medicare Advantage, Managed Medicaid, and ACA Commercial markets as well as with Value-Based Payment models for Medicare. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. TripleTree acted as the financial advisor to Pulse8.

• AllyAlign Health, a market-leading value-based care enablement platform that allows post-acute providers to thrive in the shift-to-value by successfully establishing and operating provider-sponsored managed care plans, received a growth capital investment from McKesson Ventures. AllyAlign enables skilled nursing and assisted living facility operators to offset decreasing reimbursement and cost pressures by effectively accepting and managing full risk on the fragile patient populations within their facilities. AllyAlign provides the organizational infrastructure, expertise, clinical protocols, technology, and access to risk-based capital (RBC) funding arrangements essential to the successful formation and ongoing profitable management of a provider-sponsored managed care plan. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. TripleTree acted as the financial advisor to AllyAlign Health.

TripleTree and TT Capital Partners continuously monitor the market to identify the forces and themes impacting the healthcare industry.  Thanks for reading and as always, let us know what you think!