Private equity has already helped Arcadia Health Systems use technology to reinvent itself. Now a PE firm is writing the Burlington, MA, business a check to continue the transformation.
The data provider and healthcare consultant has gotten a $13 million investment from healthcare private equity firm Peloton Equity, existing investors, and Zaffre Investments, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts. Arcadia, which was founded in 2002, plans to use the funding to further develop its data-gathering and analytics program, boost sales and marketing, and make new hires, especially at the executive level.
Arcadia may hire between 50 to 100 people this year, said CEO Sean Carroll. “We’re still early in our market recognition, and that’s something we’ll focus on with this capital,” he said.
While Arcadia has been around for 13 years, it began transforming its business after it was acquired in 2012 for an undisclosed sum by private equity firm Ferrer Freeman & Co., as well as a small group of investors that included management. Before the buyout, Arcadia had focused on healthcare-IT consulting, Carroll said.
Before the acquisition, Arcadia had developed tech-based tools that it used to differentiate itself from other consulting firms. In 2013, it began developing those tools into a product that it could sell. That product has become the focus of the business today.
Arcadia’s program aggregates and “harmonizes” data from disparate electronic health record platforms for its clients, Carroll said. It targets ambulatory networks affiliated with large payer and provider organizations, including health plans, accountable care organizations, integrated delivery networks, and large physician groups.
Often, those organizations have electronic medical data spread across multiple platforms. For a fee, Arcadia’s system collects all the data and aggregates—regardless of whether it is on Epic Systems or Allscripts—and provides the collated information to the client. The company has also built a dashboard system of its own that helps clients analyze the data, from breaking down how successfully a practices is operating to comparing things like claims data, Carroll said.
“We can provide a broader view for providers so that they can be efficient with the care they provide and can provide a higher quality,” he said.
That might include helping eliminate duplicated services, or preventing “care gaps” for patients, Carroll said. The company has continued to develop its system since it launched its data aggregator in 2013, and is releasing a new version with better reporting capabilities and specific population management tools, said Carroll, who took over as CEO in 2013.
The company charges a multiyear subscription fee for its service. But the data system isn’t its only product. Despite its strategic shift, Arcadia still offers consulting services—just in the context of its data tool.
Arcadia might make suggestions to help a client change its business based on something its analytics show, Carroll said.
“Once I have the information, I need to understand the value of it and how to act on it,” Carroll said. “My team sits with their team to drive a set of knowledge that is tightly tied to the strategy that we need to implement to transform their organization.”
