Healthcare specialist Cumberland expands managed services, buys LinkEHR
Healthcare specialist Cumberland Consulting Group has purchased managed services provider LinkEHR. The acquired company will form the basis of Cumberland’s new Provider Managed Services Practice, offering application and legacy IT system support for clients in the healthcare sector.
As the demographics in the US trend towards an aging population, healthcare spending and the need for consulting services in the industry are increasing. As in other industries, the push towards digitization – electronic health records (EHR), for example – is also driving demand for consultancy-provided strategy and implementation in the healthcare sector.
And, as is common in today’s consulting landscape, larger firms are buying up smaller specialist firms to quickly advance their capabilities in the specialist’s area – oftentimes opening up new geographical or industry markets. Digital and IT firms are especially attractive, as clients are especially eager to boost their processes in those areas.
Leading healthcare consulting and services firm Cumberland announced on May 14 that it had acquired Madison, Wisconsin-based LinkEHR, a managed services firm specializing in electronic health records. The firm has expertise in supporting and maintaining the Epic healthcare software suite, which holds 54% of patient medical records in the US. LinkEHR also offers optimization and outsourced build services.
Founded in 2004, Tennessee-based Cumberland, offers a full suite of advisory services to the US’ largest payer, provider, and life sciences organizations, including strategy, implementation, optimization, and outsourcing. In addition to its Franklin, TN headquarters, Cumberland also has offices in New Jersey, North Carolina, and Arkansas.
The deal will expand the ability of Cumberland to provide IT managed services to its clients – managed services being the (often outsourced) routine IT support, maintenance, and running of client systems – as opposed to core strategic and transformative advisory services.
“Managed services is a natural extension of our core advisory consulting and professional services for providers, and the partnership with LinkEHR supports our efforts to continue to grow our capabilities in that area,” remarked Cumberland CEO Brian Cahill. “We are now able to deliver solutions to our provider clients across the full service continuum, including system selection, planning, implementation and optimization, as well as application support and legacy system support.”
LinkEHR’s sole office, located in Madison, will become Cumberland’s new Provider Managed Services Practice. LinkEHR’s CEO, Jill Nemoir, will become Cumberland’s Managing Director of Managed Services. Meanwhile, the acquired firm’s 50 employees will join Cumberland, increasing the company’s headcount to over 500.
The acquisition is Cumberland’s fourth in just under five years. Previously, the firm acquired healthcare consulting specialists Oleen Pinnacle (2016), Cipe (2014), and Mindlance Life Science (2013).
The deal is one in a growing trend of consultancies to acquire managed services providers (MSPs) in order to expand and complement their advisory offerings. Recently, global IT consultancy NTT Communications snapped up Michigan-based MSP firm Secure-24, while cloud consultancy Reliam bought MSP Stratalux.
