Dive Brief:
- Two Blue Cross companies and private equity firm Apax Partners have jointly reaped billions on an investment in a health IT firm.
- The three have just sold TriZetto, a seller of Internet-based technology and software service, for $2.7 billion. Outsourcing company Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp. purchased TriZetto.
- The two Blues—Cambria Health Solutions and BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee—originally picked up TriZetto for $1.4 billion.
Dive Insight:
The acquisition should have a major impact on Cognizant, bringing 3,700 employees to the outsourcing firm's existing healthcare business. Cognizant currently serves over 200 clients, including 16 health plans and pharmacy benefit management companies.The combined entity will have more than $3 billion in healthcare revenue while serving 245,000 healthcare providers and payers covering about 180 million people in the US.
Cognizant expects the TriZetto acquisition will help it integrate services across three major offerings, including traditional IT services, high growth businesses such as management consulting, business process services and IT infrastructure services, as well as emerging delivery models.
This investment seems to have been a smart one for Apax and the two Blues, and quite probably a source of valuable data insights while TriZetto remained in house. It makes one wonder whether other payers see health IT investment as an opportunity to learn and profit, too.