OptumHealth and Summit Partners to acquire staffing firm Sound Inpatient Physician Holdings for $2.2 billion
Companies are acquiring Sound from Fresenius Medical Care.
OptumHealth, which is part of UnitedHealth Group, is one of two buyers in a $2.2 billion deal to acquire Washington physician staffing company Sound Inpatient Physician Holdings, according to a ratings report by Moody's Investor Service.
The other buyer is the Boston-based investment firm Summit Partners. The two companies are acquiring Sound from Fresenius Medical Care, a global provider of dialysis products and services.
Sound Inpatient Physician Holdings is a staffing company primarily focused on providing hospital medicine. It also offers services across the acute episode of care continuum for emergency rooms and critical care units.
Moody's said it expects Sound's revenues to grow by roughly 10 percent over the 2018-2019 time period to $1.4 billion. The B1 Corporate Family rating they gave the company is supported by its "leading position" as a hospitalist provider and their opinion that the company is "better aligned with hospitals and payers than many other physician staffing companies."
Moody's also said that Sound's rating is a reflection of OptumHealth's ownership stake in the company.
"The stable outlook reflects Moody's view that Sound will remain a highly leveraged physician staffing company with a high concentration within hospital medicine. It also reflects Moody's expectation that Sound will grow primarily through organic means," Moody's said.
In April, Fresenius announced the sale to Summit but did not mention Optum's involvement. At that time, the company said the deal was subject to regulatory approval and was expected to close in late 2018.
Optum has positioned itself as a company making big strides in widening its swath of investments and capabilities. The company turned heads in late fall 2017 when it announced it was buying the Advisory Board's healthcare operation for $1.3 billion. The transactions involved in that deal and the one that sold Advisory Board's education business to Vista Equity Partners Management constituted one of the most talked about mergers of 2017.
According to one report, OptumHealth already has 32,000 employed or aligned physicians who care for 15 million patients each year. Care delivery services is slated to make up roughly two-thirds of Optum's projected $24 billion in revenue this year.
Also, in December of last year, Optum announced it was buying DaVita Medical Group for $4.9 billion in cash, and in so doing, gaining a network of close to 300 medical clinics for its OptumCare business.
More recently, OptumCare purchased Massachusetts provider the Reliant Medical Group.
Reliant became part of OptumCare, the healthcare delivery arm of Optum, on April 1. That deal was reportedly worth $28 million.
Continuing their streak of disruption, April also saw the announcement that five healthcare organizations including insurers UnitedHealthcare and Humana, Optum, Quest Diagnostics and MultiPlan were launching a blockchain pilot to help payers tackle mandated provider directories.
The pilot program will apply blockchain technology to enhance the quality of data and cut administrative costs related to insurers updating healthcare provider demographic data. The pilot will start in late spring through the summer with results expected this fall.
Twitter: @BethJSanborn
Email the writer: beth.sanborn@himssmedia.com
