Change Healthcare

Change Healthcare

Change Healthcare began as a standalone healthcare IT company formed through a 2017 merger of Emdeon and McKesson's imaging and claims businesses. Headquartered in Durham, NC with additional offices in Nashville, Boston, and New Haven, the company serves as a data-rich intermediary in the US healthcare billing infrastructure. It processes over 15 billion healthcare transactions annually. The company's core business includes revenue-cycle management, claims clearing, payment integrity, and analytics for hospitals, physician practices, and insurers. Its platform handles eligibility verification, claims submission and adjudication, denial management, and patient payment solutions. Key clients include major health systems and payer organizations across the US. In October 2022, UnitedHealth Group closed its $13B acquisition of Change Healthcare, folding it into the OptumInsight division (per UnitedHealth Group, October 2022). The deal faced significant antitrust scrutiny and a federal court challenge by the Department of Justice before closing. The integration places Change Healthcare's data assets inside the largest US health insurer. Change Healthcare's structural differentiator is its position as the central transaction switch for US healthcare payments — a role that gives it visibility into pricing, billing patterns, and provider performance across a vast network. That data becomes more strategically valuable now that it operates under UnitedHealth Group's umbrella, where it can inform network design and care management.