Charlotte, North Carolina-based Premier Inc. will acquire health tech company Stanson Health in a $51.5 million deal expected to close by the end of the year.
Stanson, a software-as-a-service company, provides clinical decision support tools which health systems can integrate directly into their electronic health records in order to help guide providers in following best practices at the point of care.
Stanson was founded in 2013 by Cedars-Sinai Medical Center and the former CEO of Zyn Health Scott Weingarten, M.D. Its products are active in about 300 healthcare facilities. The company has been focused on developing an automated prior authorization product to provide decisions for medical and pharmacy benefits.
Premier officials said the acquisition would bolster their own analytics and performance improvement technology. The publicly traded company said the acquisition is not expected to materially impact earnings in fiscal 2019 and said it is expected to be modestly accretive in future years.
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“This strategically significant acquisition complements our core data and analytics offerings and enables us to expand the reach of our solutions directly to the point of care, where they can have the biggest impact,” said Susan DeVore, president and CEO of Premier, in a statement.
In particular, she pointed to Stanson's decision support tools which only pop up for clinicians using the EHR when their patient meets a specific profile and offers specific recommendations that are directly relevant to the physician’s or other provider’s decision. Its products can be integrated as an application on major EHR platforms including Epic, Cerner and Athenahealth.
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Stanson also supports compliance with the Protecting Access to Medicare Act (PAMA), which will require clinical decision support tools to justify the use of advanced imaging services, such as CT or PET scans, in order to receive Medicare Part B reimbursement starting in 2021.
The team is expected to continue operating out of its existing headquarter offices in Southern California with Weingarten leading the business unit.
“Stanson’s combination with Premier will help us expand and scale CDS to reach more physicians, and enable providers to standardize care delivery around optimal and evidence-based healthcare processes," Weingarten said in a statement.