Studer Community Institute

Studer Group acquired by Huron for $325 million

January 27, 2015
/ Shannon Nickinson
/ economy

The Studer Group has been sold to a Chicago-based healthcare consulting firm for $325 million. The purchase by Huron Consulting Group creates a company with 1,500 employees and a pro forma annual revenue of $904 million. The Chicago-based company specializes in developing revenue enhancement strategies, cost reductions and clinical restructuring for a broad array of for-profit and not-for-profit hospitals and healthcare organizations. Huron's range of expertise include care access, human resources, information technology, clinical operations, physicians, revenue cycles and labor and non-labor issues. “I think it’s great for health care,” said Studer Group founder Quint Studer this morning. “I think what they’re familiar with about Studer Group won’t change. “Huron wanted Studer Group because we filled a gap in their offerings and they filled a gap in our offerings. We will now have more tools in process improvement and efficiency in cost at hand." "The healthcare industry is facing immense pressure to enhance the quality of clinical outcomes and reduce the cost of providing patient care," said James H. Roth, chief executive officer and president, Huron Consulting Group. "Studer Group is the market leader in driving cultural transformation to help hospitals improve performance." Roth added that the goal of combining the two companies is to "create the premier professional services firm focused on improving healthcare providers’ clinical, operational, and financial outcomes." Studer said Huron is sort of known as the expert on process improvement and streamlining costs; Studer Group is known as the expert in culture, employee engagement and patient experience. “Putting those two aspects together is great for both and great for health care,” he said. Studer CEO B.G. Porter, said the two companies fields of expertise are complementary and will strengthen their ability to deal with the rapidly changing, and challenging, health care industry. "Huron and Studer Group will bring to hospital and healthcare organizations the ‘best of the best’ in performance improvement and cultural transformation to truly hardwire excellence," Porter said. Studer said that over the years, Huron and Studer Group have worked together with clients who retained the services of each company for their expertise. Those professional experiences were great ones, Studer said, which made the idea of the more formal partnership seem natural. “That’s the magic of what we need to do in healthcare,” Studer said. Studer said Huron, which is based in Chicago, is “very committed” to maintaining the Studer Group’s presence in Pensacola. “That was very important to Rishy and I,” he said. “They are very impressed with the talent we have assembled here and why would you leave a community that provides you with such a great pool of talent?” Studer said he will lead Huron’s health care advisory group and continue his work with the company. “I’m very excited about the future,” he said. “Building Studer Group was always about creating a sustainable company, and we’ve sustained for 15 years. We have 235 employees. When we started in 2000 we had four. This will lead to increasing our employment base, which was important to us, and it truly keeps the corporate headquarters here.” In 2011 private equity firm JMI Equity purchased a stake in Studer Group. Carlton Proctor contributed to this report.

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Studer Group acquired by Huron for $325 million

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