Tech-Enabled Services: Ontellus Spotlights Demand for Specialty Solutions

Across the professional and tech-enabled services and healthcare IT sectors, a broad range of software and services are critical to streamline disjointed, time-consuming, and expensive workflows.

By leveraging technology built for specific tasks, healthcare providers can transform manual efforts into faster and more secure digital processes. This helps them focus on patient care while expediting access to critical information for their requestor counterparts in the insurance and legal ecosystem.

A prime example is medical record retrieval, which is undergoing a digital transformation to better support growth in property and casualty insurance claims and litigation and workers’ compensation fraud.

Highlighting this segment’s expansion potential is Ontellus, a leading medical and billing record exchange platform providing insurance carriers, law firms, and healthcare record custodians with efficient, compliant, and cost-effective record retrieval solutions. Harris Williams advised Ontellus, a portfolio company of Aquiline Capital Partners and The CapStreet Group, on their sale to Datavant, a portfolio company of New Mountain Capital.

Below, our senior professionals share what made Ontellus a compelling investment opportunity, and why similar services businesses in the legal, insurance, and healthcare IT verticals will continue to see heightened interest.

Ontellus: Simplifying Cumbersome, Non-Uniform Processes Across a Complex Ecosystem

Record retrieval companies are vital in the healthcare, legal, and insurance ecosystems, helping insurance carriers efficiently navigate a complicated and costly process to compile medical, billing, and imaging records while adhering to stringent data privacy and other regulations.

At the same time, the volume of P&C insurance claims is increasing, and digitally exchanged records are projected to grow 17% annually through 2029.¹ These factors are furthering demand for advanced record retrieval solutions.

“Most records are still retrieved using legacy methods,” says Derek Lewis, a managing director in our Business Services Group. “With digital retrieval still in the early innings of adoption, and claim volumes steadily expanding, there’s significant runway for software-based record retrieval solutions in the space to grow.”

Ontellus is uniquely positioned to continue capitalizing on these themes, thanks to its proprietary digital record exchange and fulfillment platform, scaled service offering, and rapidly expanding network of healthcare custodians to meet future needs. “The company’s differentiated software enables it to locate and exchange records faster and more profitably, simplifying complexity and providing more cost-effective solutions for both requestors and custodians of patient records,” explains Bryce Walker, a managing director in our Business Services Group. “Ontellus has become an irreplaceable link in the insurance claims and health information value chain, and an essential partner to healthcare, legal, and insurance professionals.”

And with the combination of Ontellus and Datavant, Ontellus is well-positioned to keep delivering an integrated, digital-first platform that connects those with health records to those who need them. “Ontellus will continue to be at the forefront of digitizing the record retrieval industry for legal and insurance requestors,” says Dan Linsalata, a managing director in our Healthcare & Life Sciences Group. “In this large, resilient market, the company is poised for long-term growth while creating more value for an increasing number of requestors and providers that leverage Ontellus’ technology to seamlessly exchange data.”

A Focus on Purpose-Built Technology

A wide variety of healthcare software and service providers are seeing strong growth and investor interest, including those focused on legal and insurance services. Innovators in this area will continue to capture investor attention due to the steady demand driven by insurance claim and litigation volumes and increased outsourcing and vendor consolidation in healthcare.

“Record retrieval technology and service providers that can serve diverse client types, service needs, and products will be the best positioned for growth,” says Lewis. “And across the broader HCIT space, companies that deliver similar purpose-built, differentiated solutions that solve complex problems and create efficiencies will continue to be highly sought after.”

To further discuss M&A opportunities throughout professional and technology-enabled services and healthcare IT, please contact our senior professionals.

¹ Third party industry study