COLUMBUS, Ohio, July 7, 2015 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Language Access Network (LAN) announced today that Los Angeles-based Kayne Partners, the growth private equity arm of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., a $28.5 billion alternative investment firm, has invested $15 million of growth capital to support LAN in addressing the challenges its client hospitals face in treating the nation's ever growing Limited English Proficient (LEP) and Deaf and Hard of Hearing patient populations. The investment will position LAN, and its partner company Carenection, to continue growing their industry-pioneering services in live, on-demand Video Medical Interpreting and telehealth.
More than half of the nation's children are expected to be part of a minority race or ethnic group by 2020 according to the United States Census Bureau. A new Pew Research Center analysis of Census Bureau data from 2000 to 2013 indicates that 78 counties in 19 states became counties where no single racial or ethnic group formed a majority. They had become majority minority counties. The fastest growing segments of this diversity are Hispanic and Asian populations.
This presents an emergent challenge for hospitals across the country as 1 in 5 American families now speak a language primarily other than English in their homes. When these Limited English Proficient patients enter a hospital, they are entitled to receive interpreter services to help ensure a standard of care across all patient populations. Language Access Network helps hospitals and other healthcare venues address this ever-growing challenge by providing medical interpreters at the touch of a button, in over 210 languages (including American Sign Language) via their telemedicine platform 24 hours per day, 7 days per week.
"When we realized the amount of value that LAN is delivering to its customers, we knew we wanted to be a part of this story," explains Nathan Locke, Managing Director, Kayne Partners. "LAN is revolutionizing the language interpretation market, creating a win-win-win situation for hospitals, insurance companies and patients by helping client hospitals improve access to quality and efficient care while decreasing costs and utilization for health systems."
Utilizing the Carenection Telehealth Delivery Network (CTDN), healthcare providers have instant, one-button access to LAN's certified live video medical interpreters and other medical modalities. Carenection provides a unified telemedicine platform to hospitals over its proprietary private, HIPAA-compliant broadband network specifically designed and optimized for delivering telehealth services.
"We are excited to have selected Kayne Partners in what was a very competitive process," said Jamey Edwards, LAN and Carenection's Chief Executive Officer. "Telemedicine is simply the new medicine and will be an integrated part of the future of healthcare delivery globally. Having access to Kayne's significant capital base, as well as their knowledge of building telemedicine business to scale, allows LAN and Carenection to support the rapid expansion of our mission-critical services to hospitals nationwide."
LAN's Founder and Chief Operating Officer, Andrew Panos finds it very gratifying to start this next chapter of his company's growth. "We have come such a long way from our first video services in 2003 when we pioneered the industry. I am incredibly proud of our team and humbled by our mission," he said.
About Language Access Network, LLC
Language Access Network, LLC (LAN) is the leader in trusted healthcare communications. LAN provides its unified medical communications platform, including Video Medical Interpretation (VMI) and Audio-Only services, to more than 500 hospitals and other medical venues nationwide. LAN is solely focused on healthcare and helps patients and providers make better clinical decisions based on being more well informed which leads to improved outcomes, satisfaction and financial performance. LAN's unique "Return on InterpretationTM" (ROI) Model turns language services into a revenue generator and profit center instead of a cost center and ensures a standard of care across all patient populations. Targeted toward Limited English Proficient and Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing patients, LAN provides its rapidly growing client base with 24/7/365 access to the highest quality, certified medical interpreters available via its network of U.S. Based video language centers.
For more information on Language Access Network, visit: http://www.lan.us
About Carenection, LLC
Carenection is a telehealth solutions partner that delivers best-in-breed technology, network infrastructure and consulting services to create a seamless and transparent encounter for the patient and provider over a unified telemedicine platform. Carenection believes that hospitals shouldn't need multiple platforms to support multiple telemedicine platforms, just one: the Carenection Telehealth Delivery NetworkTM (CTDN). Carenection is the most widely utilized telehealth market network in the country, delivering over 50,000 encounters per month via over 3,000 video endpoints to over 500 hospitals nationwide.
For more information on Carenection, visit: http://www.carenection.com
About Kayne Partners
Kayne Partners is a leading provider of capital and connections to rapidly growing companies in North America. Since its inception more than a decade ago, it has invested over $600 million in platform investments and add-on acquisitions. Kayne Partners seeks to partner with driven entrepreneurs as a non-control minority investor and provide transformative capital to these high growth companies. Kayne Partners is the growth private equity group of Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P.
For more information on Kayne Partners, visit: http://www.kaynepartners.com
About Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P.
Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, L.P., founded in 1984, is a leading independent alternative investment management firm focused on niche investing in upstream oil and gas companies, energy infrastructure, specialized real estate, middle market credit, growth private equity and distressed municipal opportunities. Kayne's investment philosophy is to pursue niches, with an emphasis on cash flow, where our knowledge and sourcing advantages enable us to deliver above-average, risk-adjusted investment returns. Kayne manages approximately $28.5 billion in assets (as of 5/31/2015) for institutional investors, family offices, high net worth and retail clients and employs nearly 300 professionals in eight offices across the United States.
For more information on Kayne Anderson Capital Advisors, visit: http://www.kaynecapital.com