The ACCC will not oppose Westpac Banking Corporation’s proposed acquisition of HealthPoint.
HealthPoint is a payment application that enables healthcare providers to process real time private health insurance claims at point of sale through partnerships with banking and other channel partners.
Westpac is currently a very small supplier of banking payment services to health service providers without an ability to process real time private health insurance claims at point of sale.
The ACCC’s review focused on whether the proposed acquisition would provide Westpac with the ability or incentive to inhibit competing banking and channel partners’ use of the HealthPoint application.
The only alternative to HealthPoint is HICAPS, which is wholly owned and exclusive to NAB. HICAPS is by far the largest supplier of private health insurance point of sale claiming services.
“Most market participants were not concerned by the proposed acquisition because HICAPS is the significantly largest supplier of private health insurance claiming and settlement services,” ACCC Commissioner Stephen Ridgeway said.
“As owner of HealthPoint, Westpac is likely to have an incentive to work with existing banking and channel partners to maintain and grow health services provider volumes to compete with HICAPS.”
“The ACCC carefully examined the arrangements between HealthPoint, Westpac, banking and channel partners and private health insurers. We have concluded that this acquisition is unlikely to result in a substantial lessening of competition,” Mr Ridgeway said.
Note
In considering the proposed acquisition, the ACCC applies the legal test set out in section 50 of the Competition and Consumer Act.
In general terms, section 50 prohibits acquisitions that would have the effect, or be likely to have the effect, of substantially lessening competition in any market.
Background
HealthPoint is a business of Dedalus, a global provider of healthcare and diagnostic software.
Westpac (ASX: WBC) is one of four major banking organisations in Australia and provides a broad range of consumer, business, and institutional banking and wealth management services. Westpac is currently the only major Australian bank that does not currently offer an integrated healthcare e-claiming and payment solution.
The proposed acquisition concerns the supply of healthcare payment services. Real time healthcare claiming services at the point of sale are one method for private health insurance members to claim their private health insurance entitlements. Other options include claiming online or manually seeking reimbursement.
HealthPoint’s infrastructure integrates with private health insurers and provides them with a claims settlement service which consolidates payments to healthcare providers. Banks and other payment providers can then access the HealthPoint platform to offer real time private health insurance claiming on their point-of-sale terminals.
