Almost two years ago, in September 2017, Bain Capital Private Equity acquired cloud-based revenue cycle management (RCM) company ZirMed for a reported $750 million and merged it with its own revenue cycle management company, Navicure.
The combination formed Waystar, which integrated ZirMed’s business and clinical performance management solutions with Navicure’s own cloud-based RCM platform that focused on medical claims management, patient payment and data analytics solutions.
Pedal to the Metal
A year later, in September 2018, Waystar went on an acquisition spree. Its first target, Connance, provides predictive analytics solutions to more than 500 hospitals, thousands of physician practices and more than 80 collection agencies nationwide. Its platform leverages data science, hospital data and consumer data to deliver patient pay optimization, reimbursement optimization and value-based risk solutions.
Less than a month later, Waystar acquired the transaction services technology business from UPMC’s Ovation Revenue Cycle Services. The business uses advanced algorithms to monitor claims at many health systems and hospitals.
In June of this year, the company picked up PARO Decision Support, which specializes in electronic screening for charity care classification to healthcare providers nationwide. PARO deploys custom-calibrated predictive models for healthcare revenue cycle segmentation and charity care for nearly 1,000 hospitals.
On July 10, it added Digitize.AI, an artificial intelligence (AI) technology firm providing the healthcare industry with faster and smarter prior authorizations, a process by which insurance companies and payers determine if they will cover a prescribed procedure or medication.
$2.7 Billion Later
Less than three weeks later, Bain announced it was selling its majority stake in Waystar in a deal that values the company at $2.7 billion. It will retain a minority stake.
After all those deals, Waystar’s services are used by more than 450,000 healthcare providers, from large health systems and hospitals to physician offices and non-acute care practices. Its technology streamlines the entire payment process, leveraging predictive analytics and artificial intelligence to automate previously manual tasks.
The buyers are EQT, a leading European investment firm, and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), a professional investment management organization. EQT is participating in the deal through its EQT VIII Fund. Let’s see how quickly they start adding on.
