Wipro acquires Florida-based HealthPlan Services for $460 m

Wipro has made its second-largest acquisition in an effort to get its healthcare vertical into the billion-dollar club. India’s third-largest software exporter has acquired Florida-based HealthPlan Services, run by private equity firm Water Street Healthcare Partners, for $460 million. The US firm has 2,000 employees, the company said in a statement.

HealthPlan provides technology and Business-Process-as-a-Service (BPaaS) on a subscription basis to the health insurance sector.

The technology is proprietary and HealthPlan connects to clients across 40 public exchanges, company officials said. Healthcare exchanges were introduced by US President Barack Obama with the aim of helping individuals buy health insurance.

Wipro acquired three companies last year ranging from design companies to small tech providers in the financial sector as it seeks to get back on the growth path.

With this acquisition, Wipro is looking to give its healthcare business a major fillip. “The partnership with HealthPlan Services positions Wipro to participate in the shift of the US health insurance industry towards a consumer-centric business model,” said Jeffrey Heenan Jalil, Senior Vice President & Head, Healthcare Life Sciences and Services, Wipro. This vertical, which was one of the bright spots in the third quarter of this fiscal, accounted for 12 per cent of revenue, 5.2 per cent sequential growth and year-on-year growth of 4.9 per cent.

“Healthcare in the US is moving into an outcome-based service, which can be achieved by using technology to not only reduce costs but improve efficiencies,” says Uday Madasu, CIO, Jewish Board of Family and Children’s Services, a non-profit healthcare agency.