The ACCC is happy the move won’t stifle competition.
Westpac has been given the green light from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission to acquire payment app HealthPoint.
HealthPoint is a payment application that enables healthcare providers to process real-time private health insurance claims at point of sale through partnerships with banking and other channel partners.
The only alternative to HealthPoint is HICAPS, which is wholly owned and exclusive to NAB. HICAPS is by far the largest supplier of private health insurance point of sale claiming services.
Westpac is currently a very small supplier of banking payment services to health service providers without an ability to process real-time private health insurance claims at point of sale.
The ACCC’s review focused on whether the proposed acquisition would provide Westpac with the ability or incentive to inhibit competing banking and channel partners’ use of the HealthPoint application.
“Most market participants were not concerned by the proposed acquisition because HICAPS is the significantly largest supplier of private health insurance claiming and settlement services,” said ACCC commissioner Stephen Ridgeway.
“As owner of HealthPoint, Westpac is likely to have an incentive to work with existing banking and channel partners to maintain and grow health services provider volumes to compete with HICAPS.
“The ACCC carefully examined the arrangements between HealthPoint, Westpac, banking and channel partners and private health insurers. We have concluded that this acquisition is unlikely to result in a substantial lessening of competition,” Mr Ridgeway said.
HealthPoint’s infrastructure integrates with private health insurers and provides them with a claims settlement service which consolidates payments to healthcare providers. Banks and other payment providers can then access the HealthPoint platform to offer real-time private health insurance claiming on their point-of-sale terminals.
