The Three Latest McKesson Moves

By Liz Carey

(April 26, 2018)—Post-acute, non-hospital patient supply chain provider Medical Specialty Distributors (MSD) will join McKesson Corporation. New Mountain Capital, LLC, announced the deal, which marks the second MSD move in five years.

Under the management of New Mountain Capital, MSD strengthened its leadership in the home infusion space while also significantly expanding its presence across the broader post-acute landscape, particularly within the long-term care, home health and oncology segments, according to a press release dated April 25, 2018.

MSD was founded in 1982 and provides supply chain, biomedical services and technology solutions to health care providers operating in low-cost alternate sites of care.

“Over the last four years we have partnered with management to invest in new technology, execute strategic acquisitions, and implement strategic initiatives to accelerate MSD’s growth,” New Mountain managing director Bert Notini said in a press release.

The MSD-McKesson transaction is expected to close in the first half of McKesson’s fiscal year 2019, subject to receipt of antitrust approval and other customary closing conditions.

In the coming months, McKesson is expected to release Change Healthcare, formerly known as McKesson Homecare and McKesson Hospice, to Netsmart. This transaction is targeted to close in the second quarter of 2018, and it marks the continued broad-strategy build of Netsmart into the homecare and hospice space. The company has been in the software business for 50 years, and it has deep roots in behavioral health, the rules of which are different in every state.

“What we are finding unique is that there are things about capitated risk that our behavioral health care clients have been doing, that we know inside and out, that our post-acute clients are just starting to learn about,” Netsmart’s Kevin Scalia told HomeCare. “On the other side, with a lot of these alternative payment models like the bundles and the ACOs, our post-acute clients are way ahead of what our behavioral health clients are doing. Since we are on both sides, we are accelerating the learning of the other side—we all are going to have to work with both models soon. We see this as a cross-pollination across all of post acute.”

Netsmart announced the Change Healthcare acquisition in early April 2018 and described the agreement as solidifying Netsmart’s position as a leading provider of post-acute technology and services. After the deal, Change Healthcare Homecare Advisor and Hospice Advisor solutions will integrate with Netsmart’s CareFabric solutions, which is geared toward coordinated care. This will allow clients to use Netsmart’s health information exchange (HIE), analytics, referral management and mobility solutions, according to the company.

The Netsmart network connects the post-acute care and human services provider networks with their health system and primary care referral partners. The company is a founding member and live implementer of the Carequality interoperability framework, which enables integrated, direct secure messaging.

It was little more than one year ago, March 2017, that Change Healthcare was introduced as a new health care information technology company—a blending of Change Healthcare Holdings (CHC) and the majority of McKesson Technology Solutions (MTS)—uniting payers, providers and consumers.

Among McKesson’s expansive portfolio are its health care supply chain management solutions, retail pharmacy, community oncology and specialty care, and health information technology services. The company partners with pharmaceutical manufacturers, providers, pharmacies, governments and other organizations across the spectrum of care to help provide medicines, medical products and health care services using a fine-tuned engine of financial, operational and clinical performance tools.

Also in April 2018, McKesson announced the joint-venture launch of Health Mart Atlas, a large network of community pharmacies.

Tuned to Medicare Part D benefit developments, the Health Mart Atlas joint venture, created with McKesson AccessHealth and American Pharmacy Cooperative, Inc.’s (APCI’s) American Pharmacy Network Solutions (APNS), will manage core pharmacy services administration organization (PSAO) services, including third-party pharmacy benefits managers and payor contracting, credentialing, central pay and MAC pricing appeals for community pharmacy, including all current AccessHealth and APNS members.

In another Health Mart related matter, McKesson entered a five-year agreement with PrescribeWellness, announced April 24, 2018. The program will offer Health Mart franchise pharmacies broadened revenue streams and opportunities to serve patients through enhanced clinical services, particularly the administration of vaccines. 

Visit join.healthmart.com, ntst.com and msdonline.com for more information.