Healthgrades, a large healthcare data and ratings firm, has expanded its southern presence with an acquisition of healthcare-focused digital marketing platform Influence Health. The Birmingham-based company also has a large Atlanta presence dating back to its acquisition of Atlanta healthcare startup Brightwhistle in 2015.
Denver-based Healthgrades also has an office in Atlanta. Though Healthgrades CEO Rob Draughon says the acquisition created an undisclosed number of “redundancies” amongst some employees, the company does intend to keep both the Birmingham and Atlanta Influence Health offices intact.
Influence Health CEO Rupen Patel will become Healthgrades’ Chief Strategy Officer, focusing on new markets.
Healthgrades allows consumers to search for information about providers and health systems online. They were the first company to launch a physician rating and comparison database in the U.S. For health systems, they offer a suite of tools to help them acquire, connect with, and retain patients.
The acquisition is part of Healthgrades’ move to get further into digital services offerings for those clients. They launched their own CRM tool last year.
Influence Health’s marketing platform helps providers advertise their services through data-driven targeting, segmentation, marketing content and campaigns.
“Our goal is to essentially create a one stop shop for these healthcare providers to drive customer loyalty,” Influence’s then-CEO Mike Nolte told Hypepotamus in 2017. Just like marketing platform in other industries, they segment patients based on demographic data (location, age and gender) and provide predictions about their future behavior based on past history.
For example, a woman who just delivered a baby will soon be in the market for pediatrics services. That’s good information for a hospital to have.
Since Healthgrades already offers many of these services, the acquisition may have been spurred by a play to deepen Healthgrades’ client base in this area. 
“As two leaders in the healthcare CRM space, we have known each other for some time,” says Draughten. “Together, we work with approximately 1,500 hospitals, employing data-driven, digital-first strategies to connect patients along their care journey with physicians and health systems. With the addition of Influence Health’s core competencies and expertise, Healthgrades will expand our offerings in web services, listings and reputation management.”
The dollar amount of the acquisition was undisclosed. According to Crunchbase, Influence Health has raised $11.5 million in outside capital with its last round in 2012.
