Start an EHR M&A Due Diligence Consultancy

1. 1

   Build the diligence framework

   A repeatable review covering: the EHR and ancillary system inventory (versions, hosting, end-of-life exposure), vendor contract review for change-of-control clauses, data-exit fees, and termination terms, data quality sampling (duplicate rates, chart completeness, coding patterns), interface and integration mapping, security and HIPAA posture (breach history, open OCR matters, risk analysis currency), and the migration-or-integrate cost model with a realistic timeline. The deliverable is a findings memo the deal team can price.

2. 2

   Learn to speak deal

   Your readers are private equity associates, corporate development teams, and healthcare attorneys working against a closing date. Findings land as dollars and risk ratings, not as IT commentary: 'legacy system decommissioning obligation, estimated $400,000 over the retention period' moves a purchase price; 'the server room is outdated' does not. Tight timelines (one to three weeks) and confidentiality discipline are table stakes.

3. 3

   Price for deal budgets

   Diligence line items are deal expenses, priced accordingly: fixed fees commonly in the $15,000 to $75,000 range by target size and system count, premium for compressed timelines. The buyer who spends nine figures on a physician group does not blink at a five-figure systems review that routinely finds seven-figure surprises; your case studies should prove exactly that ratio.

4. 4

   Sell to the repeat players, not the targets

   The channel is everyone who touches multiple deals a year: PE firms with healthcare platforms (one relationship yields every add-on acquisition's diligence), healthcare investment banks, M&A attorneys, and the quality-of-earnings accounting firms who see systems questions they cannot answer. One trusted platform relationship can be a practice by itself; targets themselves are one-time buyers and rarely worth direct marketing.

5. 5

   Extend into the post-close work honestly

   Diligence findings become integration mandates: migration planning, legacy archival (the sibling card in this file), contract renegotiation, and 100-day systems roadmaps. Offer post-close support as a separate engagement with the conflict stated plainly (you priced the work you may then perform, so document independence in the diligence phase), or hand execution to the implementation and archival partners in this library and stay purely buy-side; both models work, but pick one and disclose it.

6. 6

   Compound the benchmark data

   Every review adds to the private dataset that makes you unbeatable: real migration costs by platform pair, actual data-exit fees by vendor, typical remediation budgets by finding type. Anonymized benchmarks become the content that markets the practice (deal teams love a 'what EHR surprises cost in 2026' briefing) and the pricing accuracy that keeps your estimates trusted deal after deal.

Do not take our word for the money. Put your own numbers in and see what this idea has to earn before it works. Free, instant, no account needed.

Best for: Senior health IT people who can talk to both a CIO and a deal team

Not for: Anyone who delivers IT commentary instead of deal language, since findings must move a purchase price. It is also not for people who cannot hold confidentiality and deadlines, because those are table stakes in deal work. This is not legal or investment advice.