Private Equity Health Care Acquisitions – August 2024

In light of continued investor interest in healthcare and the risks associated with private equity ownership of healthcare companies, the Private Equity Stakeholder Project is tracking private equity-backed healthcare acquisitions. Below is a list of private equity healthcare buyouts, growth investments, and add-on acquisitions completed during August 2024. We will continue to track acquisitions on a monthly basis.

See July 2024 acquisitions here.

In August 2024, we tracked four buyouts, 29 add-on acquisitions, and 11 growth/expansion investments. Medtech and biotech were the most active areas of investment, with six deals each.

Employee health

Two of the four buyouts identified in August were of companies that provide employee health & wellness programs: Lightyear Capital’s debt-financed[1] acquisition of Curalinc Healthcare[2] and Consello Capital’s acquisition of EHE Health.[3]

Curalinc Healthcare offers employee assistance programs (EAPs) with a focus on mental health. On its website, it claims to offer employers a return on investment of 5.2 to 1 and be “trusted by 4,000 leading employers worldwide” including Walgreens, USAA, Motorola, FedEx, Sherwin Williams, and Chipotle.[4]

Curalinc’s services range beyond employee health; it also offers student assistance programs[5] and employee training modules on risk and liability, management, supervisor and employee development, personal growth, and benefits.[6]

EHE Health provides preventative care services to employers that it touts as improving employee health and employers’ bottom lines.[7] Prior to Consella Capital’s acquisition, EHE Health was owned by private equity firms DW Healthcare Partners and Summit Partners.[8]

Since 2020, there have been at least 24 private equity-backed deals of companies that offer employee health and/or assistance programs or related IT solutions.[9]

Select list of private equity-backed platform companies in the Employee health/wellness space

If expanded out to include companies that offer occupational health services, employee benefits consulting or management, and employer-focused insurance brokers, there have been 89 deals in this space since 2020.[15]

Private equity’s incursion into the employee healthcare arena is understudied and deserves further examination of potential impacts, such as market concentration and health data privacy issues.

Durable medical equipment

In August, AdaptHealth sold its customized wheelchair line of business to National Seating & Mobility (NSM),[16] a private equity-owned durable medical equipment provider specializing in customized wheelchairs. NSM is one of two private equity-backed companies, the other being Numotion, that dominate the customized wheelchair market.[17] Cost cutting at these companies has been linked to slow response times for repairs that harm wheelchair users.[18]

National Seating & Mobility (NSM) is owned by European private equity firm Cinven. It has been owned by various private equity firms since 2013, which have pursued aggressive growth strategies.

Since its initial private equity buyout in 2013, NSM has acquired at least 45 other companies, including its August acquisition of AdaptHealth’s CRT line.[19]

According to a 2023 PESP report on private equity and the durable medical equipment industry, private equity firms have a stranglehold on the customized wheelchair industry, also known as the CRT industry, and have contributed to consolidation in the larger durable medical equipment industry. Both AdaptHealth and National Seating Mobility are profiled in the report.

Resources

[1] “Audax Private Debt | Audax Private Debt Provides Financing to Support Lightyear Capital’s Acquisition of CuraLinc Healthcare,” August 2024. https://www.audaxprivatedebt.com/news/audax-private-debt-provides-financing-to-support-lightyear-capitals-acquisition-of-curalinc-healthcare.

[2] Sharma, Soumya. “Lightyear Capital Invests in CuraLinc Healthcare.” Hospital Management (blog), August 13, 2024. https://www.hospitalmanagement.net/news/lightyear-invests-curalinc-healthcare/.

[3] “Consello Capital Acquires EHE Health, the Leader in Employer-Based Preventive Healthcare,” August 8, 2024. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/consello-capital-acquires-ehe-health-the-leader-in-employer-based-preventive-healthcare-302217413.html.

[4] CuraLinc Healthcare. “CuraLinc Healthcare,” August 30, 2024. https://curalinc.com.

[5] CuraLinc Healthcare. “CuraLinc | Student.” Accessed September 11, 2024. https://curalinc.com/student.

[6] “Curalinc Healthcare Training Catalog,” 2023 2022. https://hr.northwestern.edu/documents/well-being/training-catalog-2022-23.pdf.

[7] EHE Health. “Main B2B.” Accessed September 11, 2024. https://ehe.health/for-employers/.

[8] EHE Health. “About Us Page.” Accessed September 11, 2024. https://ehe.health/about-us/.

[9] Based on a PitchBook deals search for the time period 1/01/2020 through 08/31/2024, selecting for buyouts, add-on acquisitions, and growth/expansion investments for the kewords “employee health,” “employee assistance program,” and employee “assistance services.” The list of deals was reviewed and non-relevant deals were removed from the final tally.

[10] “Periscope Equity Announces Investment in Integrated Behavioral Health, Inc.,” May 8, 2018. https://periscopeequity.com/news/investment-in-integrated-behavioral-health-inc/; “IBH Rebrands to Uprise Health and Expands Services to Address Accelerating Mental Health Needs,” October 5, 2021. https://periscopeequity.com/news/ibh-rebrands-to-uprise-health-and-expands-services-to-address-accelerating-mental-health-needs/.

[11] Landi, Heather. “Virgin Pulse, HealthComp Rebrands as Personify Health.” Fierce Healthcare, February 7, 2024, sec. Digital Health,Fierce Healthcare Homepage,Payers,Providers. https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/virgin-pulse-healthcomp-rebrand-personify-health-employer-health-company-eyes-double; Minkoff, Melissa. “Virgin Pulse and HealthComp Announce Intent to Merge to Create Comprehensive Employer Health Platform.” New Mountain Capital, September 27, 2023. https://www.newmountaincapital.com/virgin-pulse-and-healthcomp-announce-intent-to-merge-to-create-comprehensive-employer-health-platform/

[12] Landi, Heather. “Virgin Pulse, HealthComp Rebrands as Personify Health.” Fierce Healthcare, February 7, 2024, sec. Digital Health,Fierce Healthcare Homepage,Payers,Providers. https://www.fiercehealthcare.com/health-tech/virgin-pulse-healthcomp-rebrand-personify-health-employer-health-company-eyes-double; Minkoff, Melissa. “Virgin Pulse and HealthComp Announce Intent to Merge to Create Comprehensive Employer Health Platform.” New Mountain Capital, September 27, 2023. https://www.newmountaincapital.com/virgin-pulse-and-healthcomp-announce-intent-to-merge-to-create-comprehensive-employer-health-platform/

[13] WindRose Health Investors. “Companies.” Accessed September 11, 2024. https://windrose.com/companies/.

[14] Five Points Capital. “Portfolio.” Five Points Capital. Accessed September 11, 2024. https://www.fivepointscapital.com/portfolio/.

[15] Based on a PitchBook deals search for the time period 1/01/2020 through 08/31/2024, selecting for buyouts, add-on acquisitions, and growth/expansion investments for the kewords “employee health,” “employee assistance program,” “employee assistance services,” and “occupational health.” The list of deals was reviewed and non-relevant deals were removed from the final tally.

[16] Watanabe, Laurie. “AdaptHealth Sells CRT Assets to National Seating & Mobility.” Mobility Management, August 12, 2024. https://mobilitymgmt.com/adapthealth-sells-crt-assets-to-national-seating-mobility/.

[17] Pg. 27 pf O’Grady, Eileen. “Private Equity in Durable Medical Euipment: How Private Equity Profits Off of Disabled and Chronically Ill Americans.” Private Equity Stakeholder Project, November 2023. https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/PESP_Report_DME_2023.pdf.

[18] Pg. 5 pf O’Grady, Eileen. “Private Equity in Durable Medical Euipment: How Private Equity Profits Off of Disabled and Chronically Ill Americans.” Private Equity Stakeholder Project, November 2023. https://pestakeholder.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/PESP_Report_DME_2023.pdf.

[19] Pitchbook profile for National Seating & Mobility, accessed September 2024. https://my.pitchbook.com/profile/12250-63/company/profile#investments