{"id":151077,"date":"2025-11-24T23:29:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-24T23:29:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/151077\/"},"modified":"2025-11-24T23:29:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-24T23:29:07","slug":"medical-software-provider-well-health-under-investigation-by-competition-bureau","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/151077\/","title":{"rendered":"Medical software provider Well Health under investigation by Competition Bureau"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Competition Bureau is investigating Well Health Technologies Corp. WELL-T<\/a>, a consolidator of medical clinics and health-technology companies, over concerns that some of its biggest acquisitions this year are lessening competition for AI transcription and medical-record software. <\/p>\n

The bureau filed an application in Federal Court on Nov. 12 for a court order to obtain information from Well Health, with a hearing set for Dec. 9. <\/p>\n

The request is related to Well Health\u2019s acquisition of a controlling interest in Healwell AI Inc. AIDX-T<\/a> on April 1 and Healwell\u2019s concurrent acquisition of Orion Health Holdings Ltd., a major global provider of medical-record software based in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

Well Health told The Globe and Mail it was \u201cworking collaboratively\u201d with the bureau to resolve the investigation. <\/p>\n

Well Health shares tumble after company discloses investigation into U.S. subsidiary<\/a><\/p>\n

Canada\u2019s medical records systems are unwell<\/a><\/p>\n

The company was founded in 2017 by chairman and chief executive officer Hamed Shahbazi as a network of yoga studios, then switched to health care the following year. It owned 227 medical clinics \u2013 a mix of primary care, diagnostics and executive-health locations \u2013 as of Sept. 30, according to third-quarter financial filings.<\/p>\n

It earned $1-billion in revenue for the first nine months of 2025, most of which came from patient services, and posted a net loss of $27.5-million.<\/p>\n

Well Health said it plans to take software subsidiary Wellstar public next year and is in the process of divesting its U.S. subsidiary Circle Medical, which has been under investigation<\/a> in the United States for its billing practices.<\/p>\n

Along with Telus Health T-T<\/a> and a Loblaw-owned subsidiary, QHR Technologies Inc., Well Health is one of the three major providers of medical-record software<\/a> for doctors\u2019 offices in Canada. <\/p>\n

One of Healwell\u2019s major businesses is using artificial intelligence to analyze records<\/a> and identify patients who would be of interest to pharmaceutical companies.<\/p>\n

The Competition Bureau\u2019s application focuses on a series of deals between Well Health and Healwell, which completed an initial public offering<\/a> in early 2021 under the name MCI Onehealth Technologies Inc.<\/p>\n

The relationship was formalized in 2023 when MCI Onehealth announced it had sold a minority stake and its medical clinics to Well Health, signed a strategic alliance agreement and renamed itself Healwell.<\/p>\n

On April 1 this year, Healwell acquired Orion Health and, concurrently, Well Health exercised a call option to take majority ownership in Healwell.<\/p>\n

In its application, the Competition Bureau said this vertical integration of businesses could make it hard for other companies to compete in these markets. For example, other technology companies could find it difficult to sell to Well Health\u2019s clinics or integrate with its existing products. <\/p>\n

The bureau said it contacted Well Health on May 15 about the acquisition. After exchanges of letters and virtual meetings, Well Health filed a pre-merger notification form on June 20 and a letter \u201cexplaining the circumstances surrounding its failure to notify the commissioner prior to closing the Healwell transaction.\u201d<\/p>\n

The agency said its staff and lawyers have met multiple times with Well Health since then, including an Oct. 20 meeting with Mr. Shahbazi, to discuss their concerns and the scope of the draft court order.<\/p>\n

The Competition Bureau is seeking internal documents and communications, some of which go back to 2022, and has requested written information, such as how the companies plan to store, use and monetize patient data. <\/p>\n

Most of the records are to be turned over within 75 days of the order being served to Well Health, although the period from Dec. 21, 2025, to Jan. 7, 2026, is not to be included in that count, and a subset of files are due within 105 days.<\/p>\n

The scope of the request was narrowed somewhat after feedback from Well Health, which said the initial request would require too much third-party cost and senior executive time to fulfill from Healwell.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith respect, it should not be the case that a bureau investigation is so onerous that it risks undermining the commercial viability of a business,\u201d wrote James Gotowiec, a lawyer at Torys LLP who represented Well Health, in a letter included in the court files. <\/p>\n

In a response to The Globe on Monday, the company played down those same concerns.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are confident that the outcome of the Bureau investigation will NOT materially impact the business and operations of WELL Health,\u201d said a statement provided by Tyler Baba, the manager of investor relations.<\/p>\n

The Competition Bureau confirmed its investigation but said it could not comment further because the matter is before the courts.<\/p>\n

Well Health went public through a reverse takeover on the venture exchange in 2017, before debuting on the TSX at the beginning of 2020. It surged to a high of almost $9 a share in 2021, but has hovered in the mid-single digits since then. The stock closed at $3.94 Monday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Competition Bureau is investigating Well Health Technologies Corp. WELL-T, a consolidator of medical clinics and health-technology companies,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":151078,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[163,521,85,46,26836],"class_list":{"0":"post-151077","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-healthcare","8":"tag-health","9":"tag-healthcare","10":"tag-il","11":"tag-israel","12":"tag-ne-i"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151077","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=151077"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/151077\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=151077"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=151077"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=151077"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}