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US healthcare giant and commissioning support organisation Humana to pull out of UK market

By Susan McNulty

Commissioning support organisation Humana confirmed today it is pulling out of the UK market within the next six months.

The organisation was one of just five chosen by the DH in late 2008, to be part of a development framework to support GP commissioners.

Humana Europe's marketing and communications director, Lee Phillips, told Practical Commissioning the decision had been made by the parent organisation in the US which was ‘moving in a different strategic direction there' and after weighing up the potential size of the GP commissioning support market here.

Talks were taking place, he added, with interested parties looking to buy parts of the business.

Humana's commissioning support tools include settlement and invoice validation software and a decision simulator.

Mr Phillips said: ‘We're not taking on any new business and are in negotiation with clients to either complete or wind down contracts.'

Humana made it onto the PBC framework as part of a partnership with Dr Foster Intelligence and the NHS Alliance.

Humana is also joint partner of the NHS Alliance's clinical commissioning academy.

NHS Alliance chair, Dr Mike Dixon, said the company had started to ‘pull in its horns' more than a year ago and so the news had not come as a big surprise.

‘We'd formed a very good working relationship with them and are sorry they're going.'

Dr Dixon insisted the academy would be unaffected by the development.

Story from Practical Commissioning