MultiPlan Acquires Leading Healthcare Data and Analytics Firm Benefits Science LLC

Ushers in a new era of the company, accelerates launch of new Data & Decision Science service line with a world-class data & analytics platform and team at BST

MultiPlan Corporation, a leading provider of technology and data-enabled cost management, payment, and revenue integrity solutions to the U.S. healthcare industry, announced that it has acquired Benefits Science LLC (“Benefits Science Technologies” or “BST”), a next generation data and advanced analytics company that combines modern data science, including machine learning and artificial intelligence (“AI”), with deep expertise in healthcare to deliver solutions that reduce the cost of care and improve health outcomes.

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“This is a tremendous milestone for MultiPlan. This transaction brings together two leading healthcare technology companies that share a vision of solving healthcare’s most pressing problems”

This acquisition will combine the capabilities of two leaders in the healthcare arena to provide cutting edge, differentiated solutions to customers across a full spectrum of healthcare channels and markets through our new Data & Decision Science service line. The acquisition unites MultiPlan’s 40+ years of experience and institutional knowledge in healthcare cost management and payment accuracy and its rich and expansive claims data with BST’s cutting-edge analytics and AI capabilities. Furthermore, the acquisition of BST strengthens MultiPlan’s foothold in large and fast-growing adjacent markets by unlocking the value of its significant and expanding claims flows for in-network commercial, Medicare Advantage and other government programs, property and casualty, and supplemental insurance markets.

BST’s Software as a Service (“SaaS”) platform adds best-in-class data and analytics capabilities that connect with over 160 carriers, plan administrators, and other healthcare stakeholders. The platform ingests, validates, and stores massive amounts of data with exceptional accuracy, and applies advanced descriptive, predictive, and prescriptive analytics to help employers and their advisors, commercial health plans and government health plans to optimize decision-making and financial and clinical performance.

BST was founded in 2012 by a group of MIT-trained experts in data science, including Dimitris Bertsimas, Ph.D., who is recognized as an early pioneer in healthcare analytics and who serves as the company’s chief data scientist. Dr. Bertsimas will continue with BST post-closing. Today, BST’s machine learning algorithms and AI software help about 75,000 employers to predict future risk and manage health plan decisions.

Key products BST brings to MultiPlan’s new Data & Decision Science service line include:

• Price Transparency – a modern self-service software platform jointly developed with MultiPlan that provides prescriptive analytics and applications to help customers benchmark network performance, optimize network design, and improve competitive positioning. In less than a second, the solution can query over 500 billion records of machine-readable payor and provider pricing data now required by regulation to be made public. The solution will aggregate this vast contracted rate information and enrich it with MultiPlan’s extensive proprietary demographic and affiliate data on 1.3 million contracted providers, pricing technology, and deep clinical b****** expertise.
• BenInsights – a modern software platform for employers and their consultants that quickly and accurately aggregates a plan’s data and provides highly flexible financial and clinical reporting and decision tools through a self-service software platform. BenInsights also integrates predictive risk modeling and prescriptive analytics and value-added services, such as benefit plan design and optimization.
• Risk Analytics & Insights – solutions that complement existing actuarial-based modeling by applying interpretable risk models, risk scoring, and prescriptive analytics for commercial and government health plans. Among other services, risk scoring can seamlessly attach to MultiPlan’s prepayment claims flows to help identify emergent risks by individual, group, or condition, and prescribe financial and clinical program enhancements across a plan sponsor’s organization.
• Other Market Solutions – a group of software solutions for supplemental insurance carriers and stop loss carriers, including digital claiming, digital underwriting, and targeted selling tools, that help improve plan performance and competitive positioning.

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“This is a tremendous milestone for MultiPlan. This transaction brings together two leading healthcare technology companies that share a vision of solving healthcare’s most pressing problems,” said Dale White, CEO and President of MultiPlan. “BST’s platform, products and intellectual capital, combined with MultiPlan’s customer reach and expansive claims data will deliver rich, actionable data rapidly and prescriptively to health plans and employers seeking to improve care, avoid cost, and achieve greater return on investment. I am very excited about the significant growth opportunities our new Data & Decision Science service line will generate for MultiPlan.”

“We are excited to join with MultiPlan to drive deployment of data-driven solutions more broadly to the industry,” added Stephen Sofoul, CEO and President of BST. “BST was founded on the belief that data science advancements will increasingly influence decisions made by employers and other risk bearers. Over the past decade, we’ve developed a product portfolio driven by advanced analytics including machine learning algorithms for predicting future risk and artificial intelligence software for managing health plan decisions. Combined now with MultiPlan, we are even better equipped to help our customers improve the quality of care at a lower overall cost.”

Under the transaction agreement, MultiPlan will pay a consideration of $160 million, comprised of $140.8 million in cash and 21.6 million shares of MultiPlan common stock to acquire BST. Additionally, MultiPlan will establish a long-term incentive and retention program pursuant to which BST’s management team is eligible to receive target payments of $66 million over three to five years, subject to ongoing service to MultiPlan and to adjustments based on performance relative to annual recurring revenue targets.

For the full year 2023 on a standalone basis, BST is projected to generate revenues of approximately $16 million with breakeven profitability. MultiPlan expects the acquired company to contribute over $100 million of incremental annual revenues within the next several years and to approach corporate-level profit margins at scale.

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