Tampa health tech provider sells for $140 million

TAMPA -- Towers Watson & Co., a Virginia-based global professional services company, acquired software-as-a-service provider Acclaris on Monday for $140 million.

Founded in 2001, Acclaris focuses on consumer-driven health care and reimbursement accounts, including health savings accounts and health reimbursement arrangements, among others.

The account-based health plans Acclaris specializes in -- pairing a health insurance plan with a tax-advantaged spending or reimbursement account like an HSA or HRA -- is a rapidly growing industry, Towers Watson executives say. The company research showed that nearly 50% of employers could offer account-based health plans as their only option by 2017, up from 20% doing so today.

Acclaris supports 1.4 million accounts across HRAs, HSAs, flexible spending accounts, commuter accounts and custom reimbursement accounts.

“We believe this combination will allow us to offer the end-to-end process for both traditional benefits administration and private benefits exchange solutions,” says Jim Foreman, managing director of Towers Watson's exchange services segment, in a release.

Towers Watson, based in Arlington, Va., trades on the Nasdaq under the symbol TW. It reported a net income of $104.1 million, or $1.50 per share, for the quarter ended March 31, on revenue of $920.7 million, according to filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

Acclaris has locations in both Kansas and India, employing 600 people. It's projected to have revenues in 2015 of $35 million. Dean Mason, Acclaris' CEO, says in a public letter that Acclaris will become the consumer-directed accounts line of business within Towers Watson

“We believe this is a critical step forward in health care administration in the new age of consumerism,” Mason wrote. “The convergence of private exchanges and account-based consumer health care administration fundamentally shifts the competition market landscape for account-based administration services.”

Mason will join the leadership team of Towers Watson's exchange services segment, while Foreman will continue to lead the overall division.