MIAMI, FLORIDA - AUGUST 30: Healthcare workers at a 24-hour drive-thru site set up by Miami-Dade and ... [+]
As the American healthcare system moves toward greater price transparency and consumer-driven approaches, some healthcare companies are trying to meet evolving consumer demand for simpler, less expensive healthcare.
One such company, Utah-based Nomi Health, is taking an ambitious approach: it’s on something of a shopping spree.
Today, Nomi Health announced it has acquired two related companies, Everyone Health and Sano Surgery, in a deal worth $26.5 million.
Everyone Health gives consumers a way to compare prices for and schedule medical procedures, imaging, and lab tests, particularly for people paying out of pocket due to high deductibles or lack of insurance. Everyone Health works with employers and third-party administrators, offering its services to employees of those companies.
Sano Surgery has contracted with a national network of nearly 6,000 medical facilities and 8,000 labs nationwide. Its network includes services such as radiology, orthopedics, oncology, and women’s health. These providers are available to Everyone Health users.
Together, these companies add to Nomi Health’s efforts to remove layers from the healthcare system. By taking out healthcare middlemen, Nomi hopes to connect patients more directly with providers, without third-party health insurance—and to save money in the process.
“Nomi Health believes healthcare needs a rebuild, not a renovation,” said Mark Newman, Nomi Health founder and CEO, in a statement. “These companies share in our vision of extracting the complexity and cost from traditional healthcare, so buyers experience substantial savings and, most importantly, patients have greater access to more affordable care.”
Dutch Rojas, founder and CEO of both Sano Surgery and Everyone Health, said in the statement that he shares Nomi’s goals.
“My goal is affordable and accessible healthcare for all,” Rojas said. “As the dual crisis of access and affordability grows on the heels of the pandemic, the time is right to increase our impact as part of Nomi Health.”
Nomi Health had announced in January that it acquired healthcare analytics firm Artemis Health for $200 million. Artemis Health provides data to employers and benefits advisors to help them lower healthcare costs. According to a prior statement, that acquisition allowed Nomi to strengthen its Nomi Connect platform, which connects healthcare providers directly to buyers.
“We’re building this entire model to equip who we think of as the buyers: the states, the counties, the school districts, the large employers, the self-funded plans, you and I—the individuals—to be able to pay providers directly without any other kind of noise in the middle,” Newman said in an interview.
Nomi’s 2022 acquisitions buck a broader trend: the slowing of healthcare mergers and acquisitions (M&A) in the first part of 2022.
According to a report from KPMG, healthcare M&A deals volume dropped 34% in Q1 2022 compared with the last quarter of 2021. Private equity deals in particular declined as much as 50%.
The report attributes the slowdown to a combination of factors, including rising interest rates, inflation, and the war in Ukraine. With ongoing geopolitical uncertainty, disrupted supply chains, and challenging economic conditions, the outlook for the remainder of 2022 may not be any brighter.
But for Nomi Health, growth through acquisition is clearly part of the strategy to deliver healthcare services more directly.
“In our personal life, you book a flight to Miami, and a hotel and rental car pop up for the same day,” Newman said. “In healthcare, you book a flight to Miami and a hotel shows up six months later and a rental car would show up in another state.”
Nomi is hoping to make healthcare work a bit more like other aspects of our personal lives. The company’s goal, according to Newman: “Bring healthcare to people rather than people to healthcare.”
