I was really intrigued by the news today that Intuit was planning to sell off Intuit Health Group. Intuit had been making some big purchases in healthcare, so it’s amazing to see them doing an about face. Here’s an excerpt from their press release about the change of strategy:
“These decisions are the remaining foundational pieces that focus our organization on our biggest opportunities as we execute our global connected services strategy,” said Brad Smith, Intuit president and chief executive officer. “We’ve evolved from a portfolio of business units to an ecosystem of products and services with unique interdependencies. Working together, these assets create amazing opportunities to solve important customer problems while building durable competitive advantage.”
And here’s an excerpt that discusses their plans for the Intuit Health Group:
Intuit also plans to sell the Intuit Health Group. While Intuit had considered healthcare a potential growth opportunity, structural shifts in the market have evolved in such a way that the business no longer fits within the refocused strategy, Smith said. The Intuit Health assets will be a better fit for an organization with a stronger focus on the healthcare industry.
This announcement is also interesting in light of the recent announcement from Kareo that they’d partnered with an Intuit company DemandForce. It seems that Intuit will still have a healthcare presence, but only when their product works across all industries. This is actually my concern for the Kareo and DemandForce partnership. I think that DemandForce will likely be overwhelming for many practices. Plus, many will wonder why DemandForce has features that don’t make sense for healthcare. Yes, we’re a little particular in healthcare, aren’t we? Kareo says they have 20,000 medical providers, so they’ll realize pretty quickly if practices like DemandForce or not.
I’ll be interested to see which company purchases the Intuit Health Group. There are probably a lot of companies that would love it, but I’m not sure if Intuit’s going to be willing to offer a great price.