A Medical Device Daily

Immucor, (Norcross, Georgia) a developer of automated instrument-reagent systems to the blood transfusion industry, said it has closed its previously reported $117 million acquisition of BioArray Solutions (Warren, New Jersey), maker of the BeadChip system (Medical Device Daily, March 13, 2008).

Gioacchino De Chirico, president/CEO of Immucor, said, "We are pleased to have completed this acquisition, which we believe will enable us to provide innovative molecular diagnostic solutions for blood transfusions to enhance patient outcomes."

Immucor said BioArray would continue to be based in Warren, New Jersey and operate under the BioArray Solutions name.

According to BioArray, its BeadChip system is designed to deploy planar arrays of encoded microparticles to perform rapid and reliable molecular analysis of nucleic acids and proteins. Its recently launched transfusion genotyping system is installed in a number of leading donor and transfusion centers for research use only, the company noted.

Immucor said it expects to provide more information about the BioArray acquisition on its investors conference call in October to review the results of its first fiscal quarter.

Bederra (Houston) a medical imaging and diagnostic company, reported today that its wholly-owned subsidiary Lumar Imaging (Houston), has entered into a joint venture (j-v) agreement with Basic Solutions.

According to the JV, Basic Solutions will offer mobile cardiac stress testing and cardiac imaging services from Lumar's diagnostic medical imaging facility in Houston.

Lumar provides MRI, CT, ultrasound and pain management services to the greater Houston area and is located next to Texas Medical Center.

"This j-v creates one of the few, if any, diagnostic imaging services companies in the city of Houston that offers both fixed and mobile diagnostic imaging services. Since diagnostic imaging is often a precursor to cardiac imaging, this j-v creates a synergistic marketing opportunity to substantially increase our patient referral network," said Graham Williams, CEO of Bederra. "We anticipate new business gained from this j-v will add $1 million to $2 million in revenues for Lumar in 2008."

In other dealmaking news:

Molina Healthcare (Long Beach, California), reported that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Florida NetPASS (Hallandale, Florida) a provider of care management and administrative services to nearly 58,000 Florida MediPass members in South and Central Florida.

The purchase price for the acquisition is about $42 million, subject to adjustments, and will be funded with available cash. Subject to regulatory approvals and the satisfaction of other conditions, the closing of the transaction is expected to occur in 1Q09.

In connection with the transaction, Molina Healthcare of Florida, Inc., a licensed Florida health plan and subsidiary of Molina Healthcare, will enter into a new managed care contract with the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration (AHCA).

Of the 58,000 members currently served by Florida NetPASS, 42,000 are enrolled in the State's Temporary Aid for Needy Families (TANF) program, and the other 16,000 are enrolled in the State's Aged, Blind or Disabled (ABD) program.

Molina Healthcare is a multi-state managed care organization that arranges for the delivery of healthcare services to persons eligible for Medicaid, Medicare, and other government-sponsored programs for low-income families and individuals.

EDCO (Springfield, Missouri) one of the largest document conversion companies in the nation, will take over HealthPort's (Nixa, Montana) document management services (DMS) division. HealthPort's management team carefully reviewed the DMS offering and its fit into the company's overall strategy and found that selling the division would allow them to focus on their technology offerings and consultative services.

In August 2005, HealthPort acquired Nauvalis (also Nixa), which provided the company with healthcare consulting services (HCS), an electronic document management system (EDMS), and document management services (DMS)—all of which were, at the time, critical to the company's success.

HealthPort's electronic document management system (EDMS) division will be managed by its Solution Services division in Columbia, South Carolina, which is a better fit for their EDMS product. However, EDMS implementation, development, and support staff will remain at the Nixa, Missouri location. HealthPort's healthcare consulting services (HCS) division and staff will also continue to operate in Nixa, Missouri, led by Torrey Barnhouse, VP and General Manager, Healthcare Consulting Division.

Clinix Medical Information Services (Nashville, Tennessee) reported the expansion of its suite of management information solutions healthcare with the acquisition of MedicWare (Irwindale, California), a provider of complete, user-friendly and affordable electronic health/medical (EHR, EMR) record software. The MedicWare EMR product, which has been named ClinixMD, offers solutions to both physician groups and medical billing companies. Medical billing companies also reap benefits of this newly acquired true ASP-based EHR/EMR technology. Billing companies can easily integrate this software into their current system, alleviating most technical compatibility issues. Clinix Medical Information Services makes true ASP-based software, delivering business process and practice management solutions to physician practices and medical billing companies across the country.

HealthSouth (Birmingham, Alabama) has finalized its previously reported acquisition of a 30-bed inpatient rehabilitation unit at the Medical Center of Arlington (Arlington, Texas).

The unit was owned by Columbia Medical Center of Arlington Subsidiary. The unit's operations will relocate to HealthSouth Rehabilitation Hospital of Arlington.

HealthSouth operates 14 rehabilitation hospitals throughout Texas.

HealthSouth is the nation's largest provider of inpatient rehabilitation services.