New IT company from McKesson, Change will focus on value-based care

McKesson Technology Solutions has merged with Change Healthcare, retaining the latter’s name for a new IT company aimed at helping payers, providers and customers “as they strive to achieve the best healthcare outcomes as efficiently as possible in this new environment.”

"We are thrilled to have completed this combination of two great organizations. Our nearly 15,000 team members will be working with our collective customers and partners to provide a stronger, increasingly collaborative and more efficient healthcare system that enables better healthcare outcomes,” said Neil de Crescenzo, who will retain his role as Change’s CEO in the new company. “I’m confident that Change Healthcare’s expertise and comprehensive offering of solutions will not only deliver near- and long-term value for our customers and partners, but also help drive the journey toward improved lives and healthier communities.”

First announced in June 2016, the merger unites “the majority” of McKesson Technology Solutions with substantially all of Change.

Among those joining de Crescenzo in the C-suite will be CFO Randy Giles, who has been with Change since 2014 and held the same position at Coventry Healthcare. Those transferring to the new company from McKesson include Rod O’Reilly as president of software and analytics, Erkan Akyuz as president of imaging, workflow and care solutions, and Pat Leonard, president of technology-enabled services.

McKesson will have a 70 percent stake in the new company and it will be jointly governed by McKesson and Change shareholders.

“Today marks an exciting step forward to achieve enhanced benefits for our customers, employees and stockholders,” said John Hammergren, Change Healthcare chairman, as well as chairman and CEO of McKesson “I want to thank all of the employees who made today possible and who will continue the important work of building an industry-leading company that will help make the vision of value-based care a reality for payers, providers and consumers.”

The press release said integration activities begun last June will now accelerate. The end result, according to de Crescenzo, will be a company which can “inspire a better healthcare system through a broad set of complementary capabilities that will deliver wide-ranging financial, operational and clinical benefits to payers, providers and consumers.”

The changes may include a move. According to the Atlanta Business Chronicle, the company is considering relocating its headquarters to the Atlanta area from Nashville.