Business News

HEARST CORPORATION AGREES TO ACQUIRE MILLIMAN CARE GUIDELINES LLC

Wednesday 07. November 2012 - Market Leading Provider of Evidence-Based Clinical Healthcare Guidelines to Expand Hearst Corporation's Growing Healthcare Information Footprint

Hearst Corporation today signed an agreement with Milliman, Inc., pursuant to which Hearst will acquire Milliman Care Guidelines LLC, a leading provider of evidence-based clinical healthcare databases. The announcement was made by Frank A. Bennack, Jr., CEO of Hearst Corporation, and Richard P. Malloch, president of Hearst Business Media.
Upon completion of the deal, Milliman Care Guidelines will be managed as part of Hearst’s healthcare group, which includes Zynx Health and First Databank. The healthcare group, along with information businesses serving the automotive and electronics industries and Hearst’s ownership in Fitch Ratings comprise Hearst Business Media. Terms of the acquisition were not disclosed. The transaction is expected to close in Q4 following receipt of necessary government approvals.
“The healthcare landscape is changing rapidly and Milliman Care Guidelines is positioned to benefit greatly from a shift to accountable care organizations and continued reliance on clinical decision support,” Bennack said. “Given all the factors, this is an area that we think is not only a good business for Hearst but one that will also significantly benefit the public as healthcare changes and advances are made.”
“Milliman’s divestiture of the Care Guidelines division is a business decision that Milliman’s partners believe to be in the best interests of all parties involved,” said Stephen A. White, CEO of Milliman, Inc. “Hearst is a fine company with a long history, and we are confident that Care Guidelines will become an integral part of the Hearst healthcare strategy. All of us at Milliman are grateful for the contributions made by our former colleagues at Care Guidelines and we wish them continued success in the future.”
“Like Zynx Health, Milliman Care Guidelines is in the practice of gathering medical evidence and assembling it into readable packages that facilitate decision-making aimed at making medical care more effective,” Malloch said. “While Zynx focuses on step-by-step care plans followed largely by doctors and nurses, Milliman Care Guidelines develops and produces evidence-based clinical guidelines used by hospitals and health plans to support the care management of a majority of Americans. Milliman Care Guidelines is the leading provider of medical treatment necessity guidelines to the health industry and we believe it has a strong opportunity to significantly grow as insurers, hospitals and other caregivers navigate the reimbursement and pre-approval landscape.”
“We’re excited about the impact this will have on patients in the United States and worldwide,” said Jonathan Shreve, CEO of Milliman Care Guidelines. “We’ve worked hard to help healthcare providers and health plans deliver effective care that demonstrably improves patient outcomes. This new partnership with the great people at Zynx Health, FDB and Hearst will help us take another significant step in helping to improve patient health while curbing costs.”
Milliman Care Guidelines is owned by Milliman, Inc., one of the world’s largest private actuarial and consulting firms with more than 2,600 employees. The customers of Milliman Care Guidelines include many of the best-known institutions across both the health insurer and healthcare provider markets. Milliman Care Guidelines insurance clients have over 140 million lives covered and its products are used in over 1,200 hospitals.
Milliman Care Guidelines’ proprietary care guidelines span the continuum of disease states and care settings including ambulatory, acute, post-acute, home health, chronic condition management and behavioral health. The guidelines are updated annually through a rigorous, evidence-driven editorial process that has been vetted and improved over the company’s 22-year history.
Milliman Care Guidelines also develops software to both deliver and enhance its product set. Its recently introduced auto-authorization platform is an example of how the combination of technology and content enables healthcare insurers to efficiently handle large patient caseloads with very little labor. The auto-authorization product, a relatively new product with significant growth potential, enables health plans to deliver a self-service mechanism while giving hospitals confidence that they will be paid for services rendered. This automation further enables health insurers to focus on complex cases that require manual review.