- Multi-Year Outsourcing Deal with Ebix
- Full Spectrum of Back-Office Solutions for Accountable Care Organizations (ACOs)
- End-to-End Veterinary & Pet Insurance Administration Exchange
JOHNS CREEK, Ga. and STAMFORD, Conn., Sept. 10, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Independence Holding Company (NYSE:IHC), through its subsidiaries, a leading specialty health insurer and administrator, and Ebix, Inc. (NASDAQ:EBIX), a leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance, financial and healthcare industries, today announced that they have agreed to set up a Best Practices Administration Exchange for health and pet insurance lines of business nationally.
The joint venture, which is targeted at creating a highly efficient administration exchange, combines the best of Ebix Technology and outsourcing practices with IHC's expertise as of one of the foremost fully insured administrators in the country. The agreement between the two companies involves the following key salient aspects –
- IHC contributes to the joint venture its existing TPA operations – now known as Ebix Health Administration Exchange, Inc.
- A multi-year outsourcing deal, estimated to generate revenues of approximately $5 million a year to Ebix and create significant cost savings to Ebix Health Administration Exchange as a result of creating a highly efficient Administration Exchange for health and pet insurance
- IHC, which will also receive cash, holds 60% and Ebix holds 40% of the interests in the joint venture, with Ebix having the option to increase to a 50% ownership position over the next three years
- Technology powered by Ebix Enterprise, while retiring all applicable legacy systems of IHC over the next few months
- Ebix contributes certain pet insurance technology assets to the joint venture to help power an end-to-end pet insurance administration exchange, which would complement IHC's existing role as one of the nation's leading pet insurers
David Kettig, Chief Operating Officer of IHC, commented, "We believe that combining one of the industry's leading administrative capabilities of our TPA with the cutting-edge and highly efficient technology platform of Ebix will overnight propel Ebix Health Administration Exchange to be a leader in providing administrative solutions in multiple health care markets, including both public and private exchanges. In addition, we are delighted to be able to combine IHC's knowledge as a leading provider of pet insurance nationally with the groundbreaking CurePet system. CurePet, which just went into production with one of the leading veterinary universities in the country, provides pet parents, specialty pet hospitals and universities and general veterinary practices with the only open exchange in the country for all such constituencies."
Pete Wirski, CEO of Ebix Health Administration Exchange, stated, "We are thrilled to be able to work with healthcare providers nationally in connecting consumers to some of the nation's best networks of hospitals and physicians. We believe that, as a result of the Affordable Care Act and the recent wave of mega insurance mergers, there will be a growing need for the types of services we provide, and that Ebix Health Administration Exchange is ideally situated to be the leader in providing a full spectrum of back-office solutions to health systems, insurance companies and accountable care organizations. In addition, we will now be able to offer new and unique technology and administrative solutions in the vast and largely underserved pet care and health insurance industry."
"Ebix has the industry's most feature-rich, cutting edge, end-to-end Health Enterprise Exchange system functioning across 50 states today. Combine that with the expanse of our outsourcing services and consistent record of having run high margin businesses over the last decade, we believe that we have the ability to improve any insurance entity's operating margins considerably," Robin Raina, President & Chief Executive Officer of Ebix, said. "The outsourcing deal gives us a high level of confidence that we will be able to create a high margin, end-to-end industry leading administration exchange. Combine that with IHC's expertise in health and pet insurance, and we have the ingredients for a Best Practices Administration Exchange joint venture."
About Ebix Health Administration Exchange, Inc.
Ebix Health Administration Exchange is a full service administrative services company that operates in 50 jurisdictions in the individual and employer markets, and provides state of the art and highly efficient open health insurance exchanges through its affiliation with Ebix Incorporated, and, through an affiliate, is the provider of pet insurance solutions that provide pet parents, specialty pet hospitals and universities and general veterinary practices with the only open exchange in the country for all interested constituencies.
About Independence Holding Company
Independence Holding Company (NYSE:IHC) is a holding company principally engaged in the life and health insurance business through its insurance company subsidiaries (Standard Security Life Insurance Company of New York, Madison National Life Insurance Company, Inc. and Independence American Insurance Company) and its marketing and administrative affiliates. Standard Security Life furnishes medical stop-loss, group limited medical, short-term medical, group long-term and short-term disability, group life, short-term, employer-mandatory disability benefit policies in New York, group and individual dental, vision and various supplemental products. Madison National Life sells group life and disability, group limited medical, group and individual dental, and various supplemental products. Independence American offers pet insurance, non-subscriber occupational accident, short-term medical, medical stop-loss, group and individual dental and various supplemental products. IHC owns certain subsidiaries through its majority ownership of American Independence Corp. (NASDAQ:AMIC), which is a holding company principally engaged in the insurance and reinsurance business.
About Ebix, Inc.
A leading international supplier of On-Demand software and E-commerce services to the insurance, financial and healthcare industries, Ebix, Inc., (NASDAQ:EBIX) provides end-to-end solutions ranging from infrastructure exchanges, carrier systems, agency systems and risk compliance solutions to custom software development for all entities involved in the insurance industry.
With 40+ offices across Australia, Brazil, Canada, India, New Zealand, Singapore, the US and the UK, Ebix powers multiple exchanges across the world in the field of life, annuity, health and property & casualty insurance while conducting in excess of $100 billion in insurance premiums on its platforms. Through its various SaaS-based software platforms, Ebix employs hundreds of insurance and technology professionals to provide products, support and consultancy to thousands of customers on six continents. For more information, visit the Company's website at www.ebix.com.
Safe Harbor Regarding Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements and information contained in this release may be considered "forward-looking statements," such as statements relating to management's views with respect to future events and financial performance. Such forward-looking statements are subject to risks, uncertainties and other factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from historical experience or from future results expressed or implied by such forward-looking statements. Potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, economic conditions in the markets in which Independence Holding Company (IHC) and Ebix, Inc. (Ebix) operate, new federal or state governmental regulation, IHC and Ebix's ability to effectively operate, integrate and leverage any past or future strategic acquisition, and other factors which can be found in IHC's and Ebix's other respective news releases and filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. IHC and Ebix expressly disclaim any duty to update its forward-looking statements unless required by applicable law."