Change Healthcare Stumps Out $208M To Acquire PDX

Barely a month after splashing almost $213 million to acquire eRx Network, Change Healthcare was back on the market, this time stumping out $208 million for PDX, which provides patient centric and innovative technologies for pharmacies and health systems.

Change Healthcare said the latest transaction complements its recent acquisition of eRx Network and demonstrated its continued investment in core aspects of the business to fuel innovation and long-term growth. It said the synergy of Change Healthcare, eRx Network, and PDX will result in faster, more integrated development and cross selling opportunities for Change Healthcare’s combined portfolio of pharmacy network, software, and analytics solutions.

What Change Healthcare is getting from PDX

PDX has a pharmacy system software, data analytics and revenue cycle management tools and a clinical services platform.

“For over 30 years, PDX has played a critical role in helping pharmacies streamline operations and leverage automation and business intelligence –– essential elements in an increasingly competitive retail pharmacy landscape. Combined with our existing Change Healthcare solutions, we now have a broad portfolio of offerings for pharmacies, an expanded high-quality customer base with significant growth opportunities, and the potential to enter new markets,” said Neil de Crescenzo, president and CEO of Change Healthcare.

De Crescenzo said PDX had been critically aiding pharmacies to streamline operations while leveraging business intelligence and automation. With that in mind, Change Healthcare is hoping that with PDX services, it can capture a high-quality customer base, offer a broad solution portfolio for pharmacies, and potentially enter new markets.

What PDX does

Fort Worth, Texas-based PDX was founded in 1985. It offers fully-integrated retail, specialty, and outpatient pharmacy solutions, including services that range from data analytics to revenue cycle management. Sixty pharmacy chains — including drug stores, supermarkets, and mass merchants — and more than 350 independent pharmacies in the United States, representing 10,000 individual pharmacies use PDX’s technology, it was reported.

PDX delivers pharmacy and clinical technology solutions so that pharmacies can better process prescriptions, perform reconciliation and adjudication, manage and give authorized caregivers and patients access to healthcare records. It accomplishes this through solutions including Absolute AR revenue cycle management for pharmacies, the PDX pharmacy software management system with applications to assist retail pharmacies with inventory management, clinical programs, and business intelligence, and point of sale solutions.

Change Healthcare will also acquire PDX’s National Health Information Network and Freedom Data Systems companies.

“After founding PDX with Ron Austring in 1985, PDX has been extremely fortunate to attract a talented group of people to create the Absolute AR, National Health Information Network (NHIN), and Freedom Data Systems, Inc. companies and organizations. Under the leadership of Neil de Crescenzo, the dedicated staff of the PDX companies will continue to serve the pharmacy industry with superior products and services,” said Ken Hill, founder and chairman of the board, PDX Companies.

Change Healthcare’s other recent deals

At the beginning of May, Change Healthcare, a healthcare technology company that provides data and analytics-driven solutions to improve clinical, financial and patient engagement outcomes, bought eRx Network for $212.9 million and sold its Connected Analytics division to Kaufman Hall & Associates for $55 million, beginning the month by closing deals worth almost $268 million.

eRx Network connects about 59,000 pharmacies and processes more than 1.5 billion claims transactions a year. It handles 520 million e-prescribing transactions a month. The business also markets insurance verification, e-prescribing, and claims billing services.

In 2019, the price Change Healthcare announced for its initial public offering was below analysts’ expectations. Change Healthcare filed a prospectus with the SEC for a $100 million IPO hoping to cover over $5 billion worth of debts. It went public in June 2019. In 2018 Change Healthcare generated $3 billion in revenue.