DuvaSawko Completes Strategic Merger with abeo

Transaction Creates a Leading Multi-Vertical Provider of Revenue Cycle and Practice Management Services to Emergency Medicine, Anesthesia Physician Groups

ORMOND BEACH, Fla.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DuvaSawko, a leading provider of outsourced revenue cycle management (RCM) services to independent emergency medicine practices, today announced a transformative merger with abeo Management Corporation (“abeo”), a leader in the provision of outsourced RCM and practice management services to independent and hospital-employed anesthesia practices.

The transaction combines two RCM category leaders with a shared customer-centric culture, leveraging the combined company’s sales, service, and technology infrastructure to expand and deepen each constituent business’ capabilities and customer reach. Michael O’Boyle, abeo’s current CEO, will serve as CEO of the combined entity. Management of both DuvaSawko and abeo will be retained and will be meaningful shareholders in the combined company.

DuvaSawko is backed by Varsity Healthcare Partners (“VHP”), a leading healthcare services private equity investment firm, who contributed additional equity to complete the transaction and has committed future equity capital to fund additional diversifying and/or service and technology-accretive acquisitions.

O’Boyle, stated, “We are excited to join with the recognized leadership of DuvaSawko and their capital partners, Varsity Healthcare Partners. This strategic combination will enable both businesses to benefit from greater scale, diversification, and enhanced sales, service and managerial infrastructure. We also expect continuing growth, through renewed investment in identified organic opportunities and a well-developed acquisition strategy that will add complimentary tools and technology to our service capabilities.”

Jill Reynolds, CEO of DuvaSawko added, “We are thrilled to be joining with abeo and gaining access to its robust technology capabilities and sales platform, which will enable us to broaden and deepen DuvaSawko’s services to its customers. We look forward to collaborating with the abeo team and with Mike to efficiently integrate the two businesses and execute our acquisition and organic growth strategy, while continuing to consistently deliver the same signature quality service and outcomes our customers depend on.”

Houlihan Lokey, Inc. served as exclusive financial advisor to both DuvaSawko and VHP. Kirkland & Ellis LLP acted as legal adviser to DuvaSawko and VHP. Debt financing in support of the transaction was led by Twin Brook Capital Partners.

About DuvaSawko

Headquartered in Ormond Beach, Florida, DuvaSawko is a leading provider of revenue cycle management services for independent and hospital-employed emergency physician groups. DuvaSawko processes over four million annual emergency room visits across 120 medical facilities in 19 states leveraging its highly automated proprietary billing platform and extensive customer service infrastructure. Founded in 1998 by Dr. Charles Duva and Dr. William Sawko and supported by a workforce of approximately 360 employees, the Company’s RCM solutions optimize collections per patient visit, while reducing errors, increasing productivity, and driving efficiencies end-to-end across all billing and collections functions for emergency medicine customers. For more information, visit www.duvasawko.com.

About Abeo Management Corporation, LLC

Based in Dallas, TX, abeo provides comprehensive revenue cycle services and practice management solutions for over 350 hospital-based and independent anesthesia practices. The Company marries end-to-end RCM capabilities and proprietary technology solutions with extensive practice management capabilities, so as to optimize collections/workflow, compliance and practice efficiencies for clients across 42 states nationwide. abeo’s anesthesia RCM platform and service infrastructure support client billing and collections processing associated with more than three million anesthesia cases annually, while the Company’s advisory services and technology products assist abeo’s clients with driving enterprise wide efficiencies. For more information, visit abeo.com.

About Varsity Healthcare Partners

Varsity Healthcare Partners is a lower middle-market private equity investment firm focused on partnering with founders, entrepreneurs and management teams to build leading healthcare services companies. Varsity has been successful in developing and executing a tailored value creation plan, in partnership with the leadership of each company, that typically emphasizes an appropriate investment in infrastructure followed by an aggressive organic and acquisition growth strategy. Varsity draws upon its extensive healthcare industry experience and relationships, as well as its hands-on partnership approach to effectively drive growth and maximize value. For more information please visit: www.varsityhealthcarepartners.com.