Telstra Health, a digital health arm of Telstra Corporation, announced that it has entered into a deal to buy a majority stake in PowerHealth, a provider in billing, costing and revenue solutions, budgeting, safety and quality, decision support, and application integration solutions for hospitals and other healthcare enterprises.
The majority investment deal was valued at about A$150 million ($110.7 million).
According to PowerHealth, its software supports activity-based funding – the method used to classify hospital clinical activity and allocate budget in more than 20 countries, including much of Europe, South Korea, Japan, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United States.
Apart from Australia and Canada, PowerHealth also operates in Ireland and the Middle East. Its biggest customers include the province of Quebec, the Hong Kong Government’s Hospital Authority, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia Ministry of Health, the majority of Australian hospitals, Local Health Districts or Health and Hospital Services, and the New Zealand Government.
PowerHealth’s Managing Director, Patrick Power, said, “Telstra Health’s wealth of expertise and experience in digital health and unique footprint brings us one step closer to achieving our mission of helping our healthcare clients to deliver the highest quality care at the lowest operational costs.
“The strategic partnership and investment by Telstra Health will allow the PowerHealth and Telstra Health teams to collaborate to encourage an even greater level of innovation and capability in finding solutions to the complex challenges across the health and care ecosystem.”
Telstra Health said in its statement that its investment in PowerHealth would aid in its expansion in global growth markets while leveraging its partner’s international business. It will also enable the company to provide “a more connected and improved digital health experience” for its clients in the health and aged care sectors.
The transaction is expected to close by the end of Q2 2022, subject to regulatory approval.
One hundred thirty-six digital health companies were acquired in the first half of 2021 compared to 83 in 1H 2020.
