Woodland Hills-based mPulse Mobile Inc., which develops digital-engagement tools to help improve patient outcomes and reduce costs for health care providers and insurers, is on an acquisition spree to expand the capabilities of its platform.
In the last 10 months, mPulse has acquired three companies, most recently Brooklyn, New York-based digital health platform Zipari Inc. That follows a pair of acquisitions last December: Tucson, Arizona-based Health Trio and Boston-based Decision Point.
As mPulse has been making these acquisitions, is also taking steps to enhance the technological capabilities of its platform. These include more use of artificial intelligence-driven programs to get patients to take and refill their medications and seek alternatives to care besides the hospital emergency room.
It’s all aimed at delivering highly personalized interactions with patients of both health providers and health insurance plans, with the ultimate goal of reducing care costs.
“Every consumer expects a personalized experience, and we are creating the technology to deliver seamless consumer experiences,” Robert Farrell, mPulse’s chief executive, says in a statement summing up the moves.
The moves – especially the acquisitions – are also helping to turn mPulse into a major player in the digital health engagement market, pushing annual revenue “well past $100 million,” according to a spokeswoman. The company does not make precise revenue data public.
That size makes mPulse difficult to ignore as health plans and health care providers seek to boost patient compliance and seek cheaper care alternatives than expensive emergency room visits.
“Health plans know they must deliver more consumer-centric experiences to remain competitive, but many operate using siloed data and legacy technology systems,” Mark Emkjer, former chief executive of WebMD Health Services, says in mPulse’s most recent quarterly performance update. Emkjer serves as a board member at mPulse.
Of course, even as mPulse has boosted its patient engagement platform with acquisitions and new technologies, it still faces fierce competition. Hundreds of similar platforms developed by other companies have sprung up over the past decade, including from giant companies such as San Francisco-based Salesforce, which posted $35 billion in revenue last year.
Acquisitions of rival digital health platforms
mPulse started roughly a decade ago as a small platform to help health plans and some health providers boost patient compliance by reminding them to schedule health screenings, take their medications on time, maintain lifestyle changes to improve health outcomes and make sure they are using all the health care resources available to them.
The company grew organically in step with the explosion of digital engagement avenues with health plan and provider-group customers, especially with the spread of telehealth and digital health-monitoring apps.
Then, in late 2021, Boston-based PSG Equity acquired a majority stake in mPulse Mobile for an undisclosed sum. This provided mPulse the cash to make acquisitions.
