UnitedHealth Group’s proposed £1.2bn purchase of EMIS has been cleared by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

The investigation confirmed that EMIS, as the lead supplier to NHS GPs across the UK, holds a “particularly strong market position” in the supply of electronic patient record systems, but further evidence found the combination of this position with Optum’s activities should not present competition concerns.

Optum is part of UnitedHealth Group, a large US healthcare insurance, healthcare, and health data analytics business. In the UK, it operates through Optum Health Solutions and provides medicines optimisation software and population health management services that use data analytics.

EMIS is a UK-based healthcare software business that provides a range of IT solutions to the NHS, including a primary care electronic patient record system, EMIS Web, which allows GPs to manage appointment bookings, conduct patient consultations, and update, store and share patient records.

While the merging businesses do not supply competing services, Optum and its competitors use the data that EMIS holds and integrates its own software with EMIS’s electronic patient record system to compete in other markets – including the supply of population health management services and medicines optimisation software.

A CMA phase one investigation had identified initial concerns that the merger ran the risk of worse outcomes for the NHS by reducing competition.

These concerns have since been probed in more detail in a phase two investigation by the CMA, overseen by an independent panel, which has now provisionally found the merger does not raise competition concerns.

In the supply of population health management services, the independent panel provisionally found that the merged business would not, in practice, be able to use the EMIS business to harm the competitiveness of rivals. This is primarily because the NHS would be able to use its oversight role to prevent the merged business from pursuing this kind of strategy.

The investigation also found that in relation to the supply of medicines optimisation software, the independent panel had provisionally found it would not be commercially beneficial for the merged business to restrict access to EMIS’s electronic patient record system.

Chair of the independent inquiry panel carrying out the investigation, Kirstin Baker, said: “Digital technology and data analytics play an increasingly important role in supporting high quality healthcare in the NHS and so it’s important we investigate this deal thoroughly.

“We want to ensure the NHS continues to benefit from innovation and efficiencies brought about by technology services competing for its business. After carefully considering a broad range of evidence, we have provisionally found that this deal is not expected to harm competition or adversely affect patients.”

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