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Telstra Health is taking a majority stake in Adelaide-headquartered billing, costing and revenue solution vendor PowerHealth.
According to The Australian, Telstra Health is paying $95 million for a 70 per cent stake, which values the company at $135m.
PowerHealth is best known for its PowerBilling & Revenue Collection (PBRC) system used by the majority of Australian hospitals, local health districts and hospital and health services.
It supports activity-based funding and integrates with electronic medical records, pathology and radiology systems and patient administration systems to generate invoices using local billing rules.
The company also has an international presence, signing a $44 million deal with the government of Quebec in 2017 to deliver patient level costing across all acute, subacute, mental health and primary care patients. Last year, it signed a $30 million contract to roll out its patient level costing system PowerPerformance Manager (PPM) in 291 hospitals in Saudi Arabia.
It also has customers in New Zealand, Ireland and the US and makes budgeting, safety and quality, decision support and application integration solutions, along with digital wayfinding and an AR-DRG classification grouping solution.
Telstra Health managing director Mary Foley said partnering with PowerHealth would enable Telstra Health to provide a more connected and improved digital health experience for the health and aged care providers it supports.
“Telstra Health has grown substantially over the past several years and this announcement marks a significant uplift in our capability by combining the solutions and platforms within Telstra Health and PowerHealth to provide a more sophisticated and comprehensive offering of digital health solutions to an international market,” Professor Foley said in a statement.
The investment is part of Telstra Health’s global growth strategy, she said, with the investment allowing it to take advantage of PowerHealth’s established international business.
PowerHealth’s managing director Patrick Power will join Telstra Health’s senior executive team as head of international growth and a development hub will be set up in PowerHealth’s home town of Adelaide.
“The strategic partnership and investment by Telstra Health will allow the PowerHealth and Telstra Health teams to collaborate to encourage an even greater level of innovation and capability in finding solutions to the complex challenges across the health and care ecosystem,” Mr Power said.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of the second quarter in the 2022 financial year subject to regulatory approval.
Telstra Health is also reinforcing its commitment to the UK market, last week appointing NHS veteran David Sharp as the new head of its UK division Telstra Health UK. This will see the full integration into Telstra Health of its wholly-owned subsidiary, data and analytics expert Dr Foster.
Article written by Kate McDonald and first published by Pulse+IT on 19/7/2021. Access the article on the Pulse+IT website here.
