Ingenix to Acquire Picis

Ingenix, an Eden Prairie, Minn.-based health information technology and services company, today announced it has signed a definitive merger agreement to acquire Wakefield, Mass.-based Picis Inc., a provider of health information solutions for the high-acuity areas of hospitals. The transaction is subject to regulatory approval and other customary closing conditions and is expected to close in the third quarter.

Ingenix is best known as a leader in health intelligence and analytics throughout the health care system. The combination with Picis significantly strengthens Ingenix’s position in the delivery system, where Ingenix serves nearly 6,000 hospitals in the U.S. with consulting, technology and outsourcing solutions. Picis will extend Ingenix’s capabilities into the high-acuity information systems market.

Picis is a market leader in providing enterprise software to the high-acuity areas of hospitals, which include the emergency department (ED), surgical suites (ORs and recovery rooms) and intensive care units (ICUs). Picis’ systems are currently installed in more than 1,800 medical centers, hospitals and integrated delivery networks (IDNs) in 19 countries throughout North America, Europe and Asia. The acquisition will enable Picis to build on its market-leading platform with additional resources, information and analytics expertise from Ingenix.

The high-acuity segment of the health information technology (HIT) market has been growing at nearly twice the rate of the overall HIT market over the past several years. Picis has experienced a compound annual growth rate in excess of 50 percent annually since 2001, and grew revenues during the downturn of 2009, even as other HIT vendors were experiencing revenue declines.