Nomi Health scoops Everyone and Sano in M&A spree

Good things come in threes for benefits startup Nomi Health, which on Wednesday bought Everyone Health and Sano Surgery for $26.5 million, marking its third such buy this year, CEO Mark Newman tells Axios exclusively.

Why it matters: The deal comes as consolidation continues linking like-minded health tech startups hoping to round out their offerings.

Flashback: Highly acquisitive Nomi in January acquired Artemis Health, which uses data to help U.S. employers fine-tune health offerings, for $200 million.

Deal details: The company's most recent transaction will help Nomi expand its range of services and become a company specializing in what Newman calls "every day delivery."

• "As we expand to every day delivery, we want to go higher level in terms of access points," says Newman. "The basics you need to go to school and live life have changed. Where do people go? We're building our own nationwide network."
• As part of the deal, 12 full-time employees from Sano and Everyone join Nomi.

How it works: Based in Orem, Utah, Nomi connects employers with care providers. It has also provided COVID-19 testing for the state of Utah.

• The company's latest buys, Everyone and Sano, serve as online marketplaces for medical treatments.
• While Everyone has agreements with self-funded employers and third-party administrators, Sano has a network of roughly 6,000 medical facilities and 8,000 labs.

Context: Unification is particularly apparent in the health benefits sector, where Nomi operates and where point solutions have long ruled. For example:

• Benefits company Accolade last summer acquired primary care startup PlushCare in a $450 million cash and stock deal.
• Care navigation startup Transcarent in 2020 acquired BridgeHealth, a company that links workers with care sites.

What they're saying: As the health benefits sector matures, consultants tell Axios they foresee more and more platforms forming from the ashes of point solutions.

• "A lot of what we're seeing is point solutions that need to get brought together so we can serve the end-to-end needs of a state or county," Newman agrees.

Yes, but: Nomi found itself in hot water in March when federal authorities notified the company that several of its COVID testing sites were not in compliance with government standards, documenting issues such as leaving supplies out in the cold and failing to properly time test results, per Deseret News.

• Newman says the issue has "been entirely resolved" and resulted from test sites being run during the peak of the COVID Omicron wave in the middle of winter, using state-provided tests Nomi was not as familiar with.

By the numbers: Newman wouldn't disclose Nomi's revenue but said it was in the nine-figure range.

• The company serves 20,000 people daily with the care delivery portion of its business, he says.
• And over the last year, it has added roughly 500 staff.

What's next: Nomi aims to be a kind of health plan enabler that helps to ensure access to care for underserved and vulnerable populations.

• "We need to tie together the rebel alliance against the empire of traditional U.S. health care," Newman says.