A Medical Device Daily

American Capital Strategies (ACS; Bethesda, Maryland) reported that it has invested $24 million in Beacon Hospice (Charlestown, Massachusetts), a provider of hospice services in New England.

American Capital's investment takes the form of a revolving credit facility, senior term loan B and senior subordinated debt. Halpern Denny & Co. is the majority owner of Beacon. Beacon CEO Betty Brennan is investing in the equity and the company's senior management will participate in a significant option pool.

“We believe that the healthcare services sector will continue to provide attractive investment opportunities and are pleased to be investing in Beacon, a company that provides quality hospice care in the New England region,“ said American Capital CEO Ira Wagner. “We also continue to expand our network of relationships with private equity firms, with Halpern Denny becoming our 22^nd new private equity relationship since the beginning of 2004.“

American Capital is a publicly traded buyout and mezzanine fund with capital resources of more than $4.8 billion. American Capital is an investor in and sponsor of management and employee buyouts, invests in private equity buyouts, and provides capital directly to private and small public companies.

American Capital provides senior debt, mezzanine debt and equity to fund growth, acquisitions and recapitalizations.

Halpern Denny & Co. is a private equity investment firm focusing on growth-oriented management buyouts and high- growth, late-stage expansion financings.

Payformance (Jacksonville, Florida) reported that it has secured $6 million in Series D funding from a combined investment by Wachovia Strategic Ventures and existing investor ABS Capital Partners.

The joint investment will further strengthen Payformance's product development and service capabilities for its PaySpan platform, allowing it to continue to play a leading role in the movement to electronic payments from paper-based transactions, the company said.

Payformance is teaming up with Wachovia to produce payment solutions that directly enable corporations of all sizes to smoothly transition to electronic payments by providing the necessary technology and payments expertise.

“Our Online Payables service, powered by Payformance's PaySpan platform, addresses one of our most pressing needs, that is to make transitioning to electronic payments and remittances as straightforward and efficient as possible for our middle market, corporate and healthcare insurance clients,“ said Ranjana Clark, executive vice president and head of Wachovia's Treasury Services Division.

For healthcare insurance providers, the PaySpan Health service similarly enables the transition from paper-based adjudicated claims settlement to a full-circle electronic solution. Specifically, the service provides a comprehensive independent approach for HIPAA-compliant electronic funds transfer and electronic remittance advice, giving payers and their providers a means to increase the efficiency of claims settlement processes.