Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) announced Tuesday that it will acquire Westfield, Ind.-based maxIT Healthcare Holdings, the biggest private independent healthcare IT consulting firm in North America, for $473 million.

maxIT Healthcare offers a range of services to commercial hospital groups and other care providers. These include IT strategy and planning, electronic health record (EHR) implementation and optimization, and management consulting aimed at accountable care transformation, revenue cycle improvement, meaningful use and more.

The firm's customers include more than 600 hospitals, hospital groups, physician practices and accountable care organizations (ACOs) in the U.S. and Canada. SAIC officials say its expertise with regard to the needs of hospitals and ambulatory clinics will complement SAIC's Vitalize Consulting Solutions (VCS) team, which SAIC acquired in 2011.



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"The maxIT Healthcare team brings significant capabilities and talent to SAIC, as well as an outstanding reputation with its customers for providing the highest level of service," said SAIC Group President Joe Craver. "Combined with our acquisition of VCS, this deal enhances SAIC's capabilities  to address the nation's challenge of rising healthcare costs, access to quality care, and the need to improve patient outcomes."

maxIT Healthcare's acquisition creates the nation's largest commercial consulting practice in EHR implementation and optimization services, say SAIC officials, enabling the combined operations to better serve healthcare providers by helping them reduce healthcare costs, make more effective use of data for decision-making and improve patient care.

The combination of maxIT Healthcare with VCS also strengthens SAIC's capabilities to provide EHR implementation and integration services to its strong base of Federal healthcare customers as they migrate toward the incorporation of commercial off the shelf EHR applications, officials note, adding that SAIC is well positioned to leverage its service offerings in systems integration and interoperability, health sciences and advanced data analytics to enable the delivery of value based healthcare.

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"The combined strengths of maxIT, SAIC and VCS will be a significant differentiator in the healthcare IT market," said Mike Sweeney, president and CEO of maxIT Healthcare. "We look forward to continued growth as part of the SAIC team, while maintaining flexibility to meet the ever-changing needs of the healthcare market."

With the acquisition, approximately 1,300 employees from maxIT Healthcare will join SAIC's Health Solutions Business Unit (HSBU), led by Steve Comber. HSBU is a part of the Health, Energy and Civil Solutions Group, led by Craver.

The deal is expected to close in August, subject to customary conditions, at which time SAIC will pay approximately $473 million. In addition, SAIC expects to pay up to $20 million to maxIT Healthcare shareholders after receipt of certain tax refunds following closing.