McKesson completes separation of Technology Solutions business

As announced in mid-2016, McKesson is executing a major shift in its healthcare technology businesses, which offer software and services primarily around financial and clinical management for health systems and payers. The McKesson units are being merged with essentially all the assets of Change Healthcare Holdings, a company owned by private-equity manager Blackstone Group. It currently manages what is claimed to be the largest national administrative network in healthcare. The merged entity will retain the Change Healthcare name, have 15,000 employees, and starts out with a debt load of $6.1 billion, resulting from $3 billion in payouts to its owners and most of the rest for retiring older debt. There had been talk along the way of a public offering of stock in the new company, but no details were given in the March 2 announcement.