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Investment Banker·RCM

Ryan Stewart

Managing Director, Head of Healthcare Technology Investment Banking at Leerink Partners

New York, New York

RS
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Why they matter

Twenty-five-year healthcare-tech banker who has sold payment-integrity and RCM-adjacent assets across four cycles; now a Partner at MTS Health Partners, not Leerink.

Background

Ryan Stewart is a healthcare technology investment banker with more than 25 years in the sector, having worked as a payer business development executive (Horizon BCBS of New Jersey), management consultant (Arthur Andersen healthcare technology practice), strategy and corporate development operator (Optum/UnitedHealth Group), sell-side equity research analyst (Bear Stearns, Piper Jaffray), and finally a banker. He was hired by LEERINK Partners in August 2015 to build and lead its healthcare technology investment banking franchise, having come from TripleTree where he was a Managing Director and Partner. IMPORTANT: the Leerink title in the seed is stale by roughly a decade — Stewart left for PJ SOLOMON (now Solomon Partners) in September 2020 to found its Healthcare Technology & Tech-Enabled Services group, and since June 2023 has been a Partner at MTS Health Partners in New York, where he builds the healthcare technology franchise alongside Michael Ludwig.

Notable deals

  • 2015
    Advised Parthenon Capital-backed Altegra Health, a risk adjustment and quality analytics business, on its $910M sale to Emdeon (rebranded Change Healthcare), folding risk adjustment into Emdeon's RCM and payment platform
  • 2014
    Advised iHealth Technologies, a prospective claims-accuracy provider, on its combination with Advent International-backed Connolly — the merger that became Cotiviti, the largest independent payment-integrity platform
  • 2022
    Advised on Prime Therapeutics' $1.35B acquisition of MagellanRx Management, combining pharmacy and medical drug management
  • 2023
    Advised Prodigo Solutions, a provider procure-to-pay and spend management technology company, on its sale to Temasek- and Warburg Pincus-backed GHX

Call-prep brief

Heads-up before you dial: the Leerink title is roughly eleven years stale. Stewart ran Leerink's healthcare technology IB franchise from August 2015, left for PJ SOLOMON (now Solomon Partners) in September 2020, and has been a Partner in MTS Health Partners' New York office since June 2023. Route outreach to MTS.

Background

  • 25+ years in healthcare technology, but only ~15 in banking. Operator and analyst first: Horizon BCBS of New Jersey, Arthur Andersen's healthcare technology practice, Optum strategy and corp dev, then senior equity research at Bear Stearns and Piper Jaffray.
  • Partner at TripleTree, then built healthcare technology groups from scratch at three separate banks — Leerink/SVB Securities, Solomon Partners, and now MTS. BA in Government and Law, Lafayette College.

Current focus

  • Payer-tech and outsourcing, tech-enabled managed care, provider-tech, virtual care and RPM, pharma-tech and real-world evidence. Covers financial sponsors as heavily as founders.

What he cares about

  • Payment accuracy, risk adjustment, and RCM adjacency is the through-line of his career: Altegra Health into Emdeon, iHealth Technologies into Connolly (Cotiviti), Patient Funding Alternatives to Leonard Green.
  • Sponsor-to-sponsor exits and group-building economics.

Potential sensitivities

  • Serial group-builder who has changed platforms three times in ten years — his deal history does not follow the letterhead, so ask about deals, not the franchise.
  • The transactions he markets publicly are all 2021-2023. MTS has not publicised a Stewart-led healthcare technology deal since. Do not assume live mandates.

Ask him

  1. Where has sell-side pricing for payment-integrity and provider-RCM assets settled versus the 2021-22 window you sold Panalgo and MagellanRx into?
  2. Which payer-tech buyers are actually clearing diligence right now — strategics or sponsors?
  3. Having built the group three times, which healthcare-tech subsectors held value through the downturn and which did not?

Outreach draft

Subject
Payment integrity and RCM pricing — brief call?
Ryan — I cover healthcare technology at [Firm], where we are actively working the payment-integrity and provider-RCM software space. Your career has tracked this market longer than almost anyone's: Altegra Health into Emdeon in 2015, iHealth Technologies into what became Cotiviti, and more recently MagellanRx and Prodigo out of the 2021-23 window. That arc is exactly the perspective we are short on. I would value thirty minutes on where sell-side valuations for payment-accuracy and RCM assets have settled, and which buyers you see actually clearing diligence today. No agenda beyond your read of the market. Would something in the next two weeks work? Best, [Your Name] [Title], [Firm]

Linked companies

Sources