WEXFORD, Pa., Dec. 8 /PRNewswire/ -- Ion Health Holdings, Inc. today announced its intent to establish its headquarters in this suburb, located in Cranberry Township. The move, effective within six months, is expected to provide as many as 25 new jobs to the region within the next 18 months, establishing Ion Health Holdings as a major presence in the Pittsburgh region, a rapidly emerging center for healthcare services companies.
Ion Health Holdings is the parent company of Ion Health, Pennsylvania’s newest managed healthcare plan.
The company also disclosed that it has begun discussions with the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania to provide managed healthcare services to Medicaid recipients in the southwest part of the state by the middle of 2005. Until now, Ion Health has focused exclusively on counties where membership by Medicaid-eligible men, women and children in healthcare plans is voluntary. Under regulations in the southwestern region, membership is mandated by the state; participants must join a state-approved healthcare plan. The goal, throughout all the plans, is to improve member health while reducing taxpayer cost at the same time.
The moves are being announced on the same day that Ion Health Holdings revealed a $200 million commitment from J.W. Childs Associates, L.P., a leading private equity firm based in Boston. The money raised will be used to fund Ion Health’s continued rapid expansion, both throughout the state of Pennsylvania, including the Pittsburgh market, as well as in other states as opportunities arise. Ion Health’s growth will be conducted in cooperation with, and with approval from, state regulatory agencies.
“Government-supported healthcare provided by private sector companies promises to be an area of great growth in the coming years, as we continue to search for more efficient ways to deliver quality healthcare to all of our citizens,” said Robert Zinn, a private equity lawyer in the New York and Pittsburgh offices of Kirkpatrick & Lockhart. Zinn noted that companies like Ion Health are well-positioned to provide healthcare service offerings on a national basis because of Western Pennsylvania’s proximity to large segments of the U.S. population, coupled with a strong healthcare infrastructure in Pittsburgh and other parts of Pennsylvania.
Ion Health Holdings officials noted that the company remains strongly committed to the Erie market, where it was founded more than two years ago, and intends to more than double the total number of full-time jobs throughout the company over the next 12 months from 63 to more than 150, as part of today’s announced expansion.
“The Pittsburgh region is rapidly establishing itself as a center for cutting-edge healthcare firms, and we are pleased to join in this movement,” said Anthony Horbal, Ion Health’s Founder and Chief Executive Officer. “The funding that we are announcing today will help us achieve our objective of establishing Ion Health as the major enabler of healthcare services in every one of the communities we serve.”
Ion Health Holdings, Inc.
CONTACT: Steve Friedberg, MMI Communications, +1-610-518-7474,steve@mmicommunications.net, for Ion Health Holdings