San Francisco-based McKesson is a major player in both the health IT and pharmaceutical sectors.
Here are 10 things to know about the company.
1. McKesson was founded in New York City in 1833 by John McKesson and Charles Olcott as a therapeutic drug and chemical wholesale company. In 1853, a new partner, Daniel Robbins, joined the company. Through the years, McKesson altered its focus multiple times and acquired various companies, including General Medical and HBO & Co. Today McKesson stands as the oldest healthcare company in the U.S.
2. John H. Hammergren currently serves as chairman, president and CEO of McKesson. He was named president and CEO in 2001 and chairman in 2002.
3. The company has two primary businesses: McKesson Distribution Solutions and McKesson Technology Solutions. Through those businesses, McKesson works with providers, manufacturers, pharmacies and health plans. As part of its Distribution Solutions business, McKesson delivers one-third of all pharmaceuticals used each day in North America. More than 200,000 physicians utilize McKesson's technology and services, and 76 percent of hospitals with more than 200 beds are McKesson customers.
4. However, McKesson's offerings aren't limited to products in the pharmaceutical and technology sectors. The company offers a plethora of services across numerous sectors. A small sampling of McKesson's offerings includes revenue cycle services for physicians and for radiology, a Homecare MobileCare solution, prescription labeling and printing services, a Blood Bank solution and gift card processing services.
5. Last May, McKesson released its fiscal year 2016 financial results. Between the year ended March 31, 2015 and the year ended March 31, 2016, McKesson's revenue increased 6.6 percent from $179 billion to $190.9 billion. During the same period, McKesson's net income increased 49.7 percent from $1.5 billion to $2.3 billion.
6. According to July 2016 ONC data, 462 hospitals that attest to meaningful use utilize McKesson's EHR technology, making it the fifth most common health IT vendor. Cerner, Meditech, Epic and Evident have more hospital customers.
7. As part of the 2016 Black Book Inpatient EHR Surveys, a loyalty index split degrees of loyalty into four quadrants: "most loyal," "reachable," "trapped" and "top risk." McKesson was the only vendor placed in the "reachable" sector, which is characterized by clients with a good attitude about working with the company but do not have plans to enhance the business relationship.
8. McKesson was a founding member of the CommonWell Health Alliance, an organization dedicated to improving interoperability in the health IT realm. Other founding members include Allscripts, athenahealth, Cerner, Evident, Greenway Health and Sunquest. Additionally, McKesson committed to the Interoperability Pledge, which presents healthcare providers with three core commitments regarding interoperability and was announced at HIMSS16.
9. After a months-long process, McKesson and Change Healthcare have almost closed on the merger of their business units. In June 2016, the companies unveiled plans to combine McKesson's IT business unit and all of Change Healthcare's businesses into a separate company focused on healthcare technology. In September, the Department of Justice began examining potential antitrust concerns regarding the proposed merger, but the DOJ ended its investigation by late December. In January, the companies said the new company would retain the Change Healthcare name. Through the merger, which is expected to close in the first half of this year, McKesson will own 70 percent of the new company and Change Healthcare stockholders will own the remaining 30 percent.
10. McKesson has been working on a number of acquisitions recently. In December 2016, it wrapped up its $2.1 billion acquisition of Mississauga, Ontario, Canada-based Rexall Health. Through the transaction, McKesson gained ownership of Rexall's 470 pharmacies. Last month, McKesson bought CoverMyMeds, an electronic prior authorization service provider, in a pending $1.1 billion deal. The acquisition agreement also includes a maximum of $300 million of consideration, which is dependent on CoverMyMeds' fiscal performance.