MELBOURNE, FL – One of the largest suppliers of healthcare IT services to the government is signaling an aggressive push into the commercial market with a new acquisition.
The Harris Corporation announced during HIMSS11 that it has acquired Carefx, a Scottsdale, Ariz.-based provider of interoperability workflow solutions built on its Fusionfx platform. The $155 million deal is expected to strengthen Melbourne, Fla.-based Harris’ offerings to government entities while enabling it and Carefx to develop a more robust platform for healthcare providers.
“This acquisition will enable Harris to provide an expanded range of interoperability solutions to both government and commercial healthcare providers,” said Howard L. Lance, chairman, president and chief executive officer of the Harris Corporation. “Carefx serves high-growth markets. Their product suite and sales channels will position Harris to deliver trusted, comprehensive workflow integration that ultimately leads to better care and lower healthcare costs.”
Harris, with about $5 billion in annual revenues and 16,000 employees in more than 150 countries, supplies health information exchange solutions for the Departments of Veterans Affairs and Defense and the Social Security Administration. The company’s four-year-old Healthcare Solutions segment, based in Falls Church, Va., recently won the rights to create Florida’s statewide health information exchange platform.
Carefx, a 250-employee company founded in 2002, has deployed its Fusionfx platform to more than 800 healthcare providers and exchanges in North America, Europe and Africa, including Boston Medical Center, the Johns Hopkins Health System and the Louisiana Rural Health Information Exchange. The company’s IT partners have included GE Healthcare, Oracle, Cerner and IBM.
Carefx chairman and CEO Andy Hurd said Harris’ back-end capabilities in large-scale services, complex image management and security will boost the Fusionfx platform, giving the combined company a strong, vendor-neutral HIE offering for providers that use best-of-breed solutions.
“It’s that kind of muscle and capability … that we think is going to put us in a strong position to take the company to the next level,” he said.
Hurd said Carefx and Harris “are very much aligned,” and that the two companies have experience with HIE and government projects. “We give (Harris) an excellent platform” to push further into the commercial healthcare sector, he added.
Jim Traficant, vice president and general manager of Harris Healthcare Solutions, agreed, pointing out that more than half of all healthcare services provided to the nation’s active duty military personnel is provided by the private sector.
“Carefx has been transforming the way hospitals and healthcare providers achieve interoperability between disparate systems – and achieve federal requirements for meaningful use,” he added. “By giving clinicians the information they need – where and when they need it – the Fusionfx solution suite creates a seamless end-user experience.”
