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TripleTree, LLC announced that HSS, a privately-held Connecticut-based healthcare content and software company, was sold and will operate under the Ingenix business unit of UnitedHealth Group. The transaction combines HSS’ proven methodology and highly leveragable growth platform with the content of Ingenix, forming a market leader in Coding, Compliance & Reimbursement (CCRM) products for provider and payer markets.

Committed to helping the healthcare industry improve techniques for managing the finance and delivery of medical care, HSS retained TripleTree, a customized investment bank, to develop a strategic plan that would enhance and secure their long-term position in the CCRM market.

Having recently completed an extensive research effort around the healthcare revenue cycle – the processes and enabling technologies that coordinate the collection of payments for healthcare services – TripleTree’s study revealed that the market did not consist of any “end-to-end” players, but rather contained companies that were either attempting to build-out more robust offers, or were more narrowly-focused point solutions intent on a particular segment of the market.

After a thorough analysis of HSS’ market niche, TripleTree looked at a number of viable strategic development opportunities and ultimately recommended a strategic sale of HSS to a buyer who did not necessarily provide the same business offerings, but would be complementary in that it would present an opportunity to build a market leading solution.

Ingenix, a business unit of UnitedHealth Group and one of the industry’s leading health information companies, provides products and services that helps employers and their employees understand and manage escalating healthcare costs; assists pharmaceutical companies to bring drugs to the market more quickly and safely; improves the quality of care by advancing the best forms of treatment; invests tools that help health plans manage their physicians networks; and educates physicians about clinical care.

Given TripleTree’s extensive understanding of the revenue cycle market, the firm was able to articulate to UnitedHealth Group how HSS products were woven into a complex and fragmented marketplace of complementary software and service vendors on both the payer and provider sides of the revenue cycle workflow.

As exclusive financial advisor, TripleTree worked with HSS in preparing detailed materials that verified the Company’s unique business/financial model and its impact going forward. With a team of the firm’s most senior professionals committed to the engagement and responsible for finding creative solutions to less than simple issues, the team managed a complex negotiating process, Ingenix made a very compelling offer to the shareholders of HSS, and the Company was sold.

“Our goal was to find a vibrant home for HSS and its people where we would have a continued opportunity to participate in business growth. While this opportunity accelerated our timetable, the strategic fit allowed us to exceed our goals,” said Bob Leary, CEO of HSS.

The UnitedHealth Group acquisition of HSS adds yet another transaction to TripleTree’s national portfolio of clients in the healthcare industry. In the past three years, TripleTree has closed on more than 25 engagements. The firm, with a best-in-class reputation, has built an advisory model driven by a senior level “hands-on” approach based on extensive financial experience and operating backgrounds, as well as an in-depth understanding of the global buyer universe."

To read the full case study on this transaction, please visit the Engagement page on TripleTree’s website or click here.

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