Experian is expanding its healthcare business by purchasing Medical Present Value, an Austin, Texas-based revenue cycle management company, for $185 million.
The global information services company has had a partnership with MPV since March 2010. The two organizations began talking about a sale in February, with the intention of announcing an agreement during this week's Healthcare Financial Management Association’s ANI Healthcare Finance Conference in Orlando, Fla., which wraps up Wednesday.
Known to most of the world as the company from which credit reports are generated, Experian has wanted to expand into the healthcare market, said Dan Johnson, president of Experian’s Healthcare Services unit, because of the growth potential of the industry.
The acquisition of MPV furthers Experian’s goals for positioning itself in the healthcare market and is a natural fit for its SearchAmerica unit, said Johnson. Experian purchased SearchAmerica, a solutions and services company serving hospitals, in 2008. Purchasing MPV will allow Experian to provide holistic revenue cycle services to physicians and hospitals.
“MPV gets Experian into the physician space,” said Johnson.
[See also: SearchAmerica tool helps hospitals manage collections.]
All of MPV’s assets will become part of Experian once the sale is final; MPV’s locations in Plymouth, Mass., and Austin and San Antonio, Texas, will be retained, as will the company’s staff and management teams, Johnson said.
“As much as we’re interested in (MPV’s) products and customers,” said Johnson, “we’re equally interested in (their) people.”