HMS Holdings, which owns a number of subsidiaries providing software tools for payers, has acquired Essette, a web-based care management platform which helps payers and providers with population health management and patient engagement. The acquisition was a cash deal and the purchase price was $20 million.

“Essette is a market leader, with a demonstrated track record of supplying payers with technology solutions to support care management and care coordination. As our customers increasingly focus on managing their members through the care continuum, the addition of Essette gives HMS powerful new software tools to leverage our historically strong data analytics capacity and distribution channel as we further evolve our technology solutions for risk bearing entities,” Bill Lucia, HMS Chairman and CEO, said in a statement. “This acquisition is a strategically important first step in our strategy to build a broad foundation of technology and service solutions to help our customers better manage quality, cost and compliance across all lines of business. We were also attracted to the recurring revenue potential for the Essette workflow solutions."

Essette works with risk-bearing provider organizations including managed care organizations and care delivery organizations. Its software helps care teams coordinate, helps organizations manage multiple data repositories, and also improves patient-doctor communication.

"We are very excited about the opportunity to sell our care coordination, navigation and planning services to the expansive HMS customer base,” Andy Gaudette, Essette CEO, said in a statement. “As noted in a recent Gartner report, ‘Care management workflow applications form the operational backbone of payer population health management programs.’ In addition to controlling costs, payers are increasingly focused on improving outcomes, patient engagement and compliance – particularly as value-based reimbursement increases.  The Essette software suite sits at the intersection of each of those needs.”