Berkeley Research Group has agreed to acquire the equity ownership of Chicago-based Prism Healthcare Partners in a deal targeted to close in early June, which will result in one of the largest healthcare performance improvement consulting firms in the country.
Here are five things to know about BRG, Prism Healthcare Partners and the combined practice:
1. With the closing of the deal, BRG's healthcare consulting group will expand to 350 consultants with more than 15 years of experience on average. Emeryville, Calif.-based BRG is a global consulting firm with more than 40 offices around the world.
2. The merged practice will be led by Paul Osborne, managing director of BRG's healthcare performance improvement group, and Mukesh Gangwal, president and CEO of Prism.
3. "We are now at the scale of the largest firms in our industry, but we have the ability to partner with our clients in a more cost-effective and agile manner," said Mr. Osborne. "Time is money. Clients shouldn't have to wait to see results. Using advanced analytics and subject matter expertise, we quickly identify performance improvement opportunities and implement results, enabling providers to rapidly increase revenues and reduce expenses in the immediate, intermediate and long-term."
4. "The market today demands increased efficiencies that are sustainable across the organization," Mr. Gangwal said. "Providers must navigate a dynamic and disruptive healthcare environment, declining reimbursements, a need to provide a broader continuum of care, the rising element of consumerism in choice, and a shift from volume to value in payment and care delivery. They need to be strategic, innovative and operationally effective to remain relevant in their respective markets."
5. The two firms have track records of helping multihospital health systems, major academic medical centers and stand-alone community hospitals improve their financial and operational performance in labor, supply chain, revenue cycle, clinical operations, physician enterprise, strategy and growth. BRG consultants work with a proprietary analytics platform to drive data-driven results, and Prism has extensive experience helping a range of providers, particularly academic medical centers, that have specialized needs because of their teaching, research and clinical orientation.