Health insurance company UnitedHealth Group has agreed to buy Change Healthcare for USD 7.84bn, signalling an expansion of its data collection and healthcare technology businesses.

The offerings from Change Healthcare — which operates a US clearinghouse for financial transactions between healthcare providers and payers — are expected to supplement UnitedHealth’s OptumInsight division, according to published reports.

Optum — which offers data, software and services to the medical community — does not license its data to financial services firms, the firm told Neudata in 2019.

In addition to its core business activities, Change Healthcare currently monetises the transaction data from the USD 2.1trn it processes in US annual healthcare spending through four main data categories: medical claims, medical payments, pharmacy prescription claims and lab orders & results. Investors use Change Healthcare’s data in a variety of ways, including the production of sales estimates for pharmaceutical or biotech companies, or to identify macro trends in US healthcare.

Change Healthcare resulted from the merger of Change Healthcare Holdings and McKesson’s technology solutions business in March 2017. The pre-existing company Change Healthcare was known as Emdeon until its rebranding in November 2015.

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