Optum acquires Texas health services firm

UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s data services division, Optum, announced Tuesday that it has acquired a Texas company that handles billing, scheduling and other administrative services for hospitals and integrated doctor practices.

MedSynergies, based in Irving, is a closely held company whose business management software and other services are used by 9,300 physicians and other clinicians across 30 states. Terms were not disclosed.

Optum traditionally has been stronger on the hospital side, where it works with more than 4,000 health systems. The acquisition bolsters the Eden Prairie company's existing back-office services business by broadening its access to include primary care clinics as well as inpatient, outpatient and critical care settings.

"Our landscape becomes a lot clearer handling the financial and clinical transaction from out in the clinic to way back in hospital," said OptumInsight CEO Bill Miller.

MedSynergies was started in 1996 by 20 ophthalmologists in the Dallas-Fort Worth area with $25 million in seed money. It has been funded through private equity, most recently with a $65 million infusion in July 2013, according to a regulatory filing.

Its clients include physician practices as well as a number of large integrated health systems, such as Nashville-based Vanguard Health Systems, Texas Health Resources and Catholic Health Initiatives, which is based in Englewood, Colo. and is the nation's second-largest faith-based health system.

The company handled $1.7 billion in revenue through its systems last year, according to MedSynergies' website, up from $90 million in 2011.

Although there is some overlap, Miller said MedSynergies' client roster of large, quality health systems gives Optum the kind of broad geographic reach it was seeking.

"We think scale and the ability in invest over time in the modern infrastructure," he said.

OptumInsight, the business unit that does most of Optum's consulting and IT work with provider groups, health systems, insurance carriers and government agencies, has been on a growth march over the past five years.

It made a number of big acquisitions in 2010 and 2011, including Picis and CareMedic, to build up its business offerings in billing and collection management, coding and other administrative management tools.

This sector of the business has become a sizable portion of Optum's portfolio, and, Miller said, "will continue to be so."