Experian Acquires Passport Health Communications for $850 Million

Global information services company Experian announced this morning that it will acquire Franklin, TN-based Passport Health Communications for $850 million in cash.

Experian CEO Don Robert said of the acquisition, “Since entering the US healthcare payments market five years ago, we have steadily expanded our position through both organic investment and acquisition, and our business is growing strongly. We are now taking the next step and the acquisition of Passport Health will make us a clear leader in this high growth and attractive market. With our newly combined product range, we will offer our clients in the US healthcare industry a competitive one-stop-shop to manage risk and to satisfy their payments requirements. We are excited about the growth opportunities created by this combination and we greatly look forward to welcoming our new Passport Health colleagues to Experian once the transaction completes.”

Passport, founded in 1996, operates five divisions: Passport (orders, scheduling, verification, patient payments); HealthWorks (physician order screening for compliance); Nebo Systems (claims management); Stat Technologies (scheduling, surgery and bed management); and Data Systems Group (claims and payment processing). It summarizes its mission as “Patient access and payment certainty.” The company’s annual revenue was reported as $121 million.

Passport CEO Scott MacKenzie joined the company in April 2009 after serving as president of RelayHealth Pharmacy Solutions and holding several positions with Cerner. I interviewed him in November 2011.