What You Should Know:
– W2O announced today the acquisition of Discern Health, a leading healthcare consultancy based in Washington, DC, and Baltimore, to strengthen its strategic capabilities in assisting clients with critical healthcare policy trends and value-based reimbursement models.
– Discern Health brings experts with decades of experience in quality, health care measurement, and payment models to W2O’s analytics-driven, technology-enabled marketing and communications solutions. Leaders from Discern come from companies and organizations like the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), National Quality Forum (NQF), and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA).
W2O, the leading independent provider of analytics-driven, technology-enabled marketing, and communications solutions to the healthcare sector, today announced the acquisition of Discern Health. This health economics and outcomes research (HEOR) consulting firm provides strategic direction and policy solutions to life sciences companies, government and nonprofit agencies, and health insurers. Financial details of the acquisition were not disclosed.
Discern Health Background/Capabilities
Discern Health counsels leading healthcare organizations on the performance measures and innovative payment models that shape the market for their products and services. Discern Health also works closely with organizations to strengthen and quantify clinical and real-world evidence strategies that inform ongoing market access and commercialization initiatives. Discern Health’s staff previously held roles within leading organizations including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), the National Quality Forum (NQF), and the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA). Discern has offices in Baltimore and Washington, D.C., further expanding W2O’s presence with now nearly 100 people dedicated to these increasingly important health policy arenas.
“Value-based care is a key driver of health system change,” said Guy D’Andrea, Founder and Managing Partner of Discern Health. “To be successful, health care companies need to integrate value-based strategy into each level of their organization and each stage of product development.”
Today’s announcements marks the sixth acquisition W2O has completed since the company announced its partnership with New Mountain Capital just over a year ago. W2O’s approach to growth is to add experts and capabilities that its clients recommend. This approach continues to strengthen W2O’s offerings and positions the company as a go-to partner of choice to help clients accelerate clinical trials, achieve commercial success, and navigate and engage all their stakeholders in an increasingly virtual, social and digital post-COVID-19 pandemic reality.
Why It Matters
“Value-based metrics, the continued need for real-world data integration, and the changing landscape of federal, state and international health policy in the face of the COVID-19 crisis are impacting healthcare faster than ever before,” said Rita Glaze, Practice Leader, Commercial Strategy and Market Access at W2O. “Our clients need ongoing evidence-generation strategies that mirror the market dynamics they are facing, along with up-to-the-minute insights and counsel. This information is vital to guide policy positions and commercial decisions that will unlock maximum value for their products, solutions and services. With Discern Health as part of our organization, we will continue to raise the quality and depth of our data and analytics offering, to ensure it stands up to the scrutiny of peer and government review. We will truly be #BetterTogether.”
Post-Acquisition Plans
The Discern team will operate under W2O’s single, integrated profit and loss (P&L) operation, with access to all of W2O’s proprietary data models and tools as well as its 1,400 person strong multidisciplinary team – including data analysts, scientific strategists, branding experts, communications specialists and creatives – to build unfair advantage for clients and their brands. Additionally, the Discern leadership team will remain the same.
