Medibank makes fresh WA push

FEDERAL government-owned medical insurance giant Medibank has continued the consolidation of Western Australia’s occupational health sector with the purchase of Carepoint Industrial Health Services.

Carepoint founder David Wee appears to have been the key vendor of the company, which he established in 1994. The price has not been disclosed.

The move by Medibank follows that of listed pathology major Sonic Healthcare, which moved to increase its share of the occupational medicine market by buying Osborne Park-based Prime Health Group in April.

Prime’s biggest shareholder was investment banker John Poynton. It was run by Greg Hutchinson, who remained with Sonic to oversee the integration of Prime with its major rival Gemini Medical, a Fremantle-based occupational health group bought by Sonic for $32 million in 2008.

Prime boasted a powerful board until its sale, including former WA director-general of health Neale Fong and former Alinta senior executives Chris Indermaur and Murray King, who were part of the proposed management buy-out of the utility that included Mr Poynton.

Carepoint will become part of Medibank’s medical and allied health services division, formerly Health Services Australia, which merged with Medibank Private in 2008 to form the current organisation known as Medibank.

The merger followed the federal Labor government’s decision to stop the privatisation of Medibank Private, which was an election policy of the previous federal Liberal government.

Medibank managing director George Savvides said the acquisition of Carepoint included occupational health, rehabilitation and travel health services to industrial companies across WA and would give the national group the opportunity to fast-track growth plans for its health solutions business in the state. “We are investing heavily in Western Australia and our existing team will be significantly enhanced with the addition of Carepoint,” Mr Savvides said in a statement.

“We recently won the Gorgon contract to deliver health services on Barrow Island and the new team will help boost our capacity, expand our services, and establish a number of new projects in the region.”

Mr Wee could not be contacted for comment but he is known to have interests outside the commercial health sector, including property development.

He is one of two directors of property group Beyond 3000, which has a focus on environmentally friendly developments that embrace what it calls ‘green urbanism’.

Its flagship project is called Panorama, which involves 98 hectares of prime waterfront land between the Peel Inlet and Yalgorup National Park south of Mandurah.

Beyond 3000 is also developing a 47.5ha site on the banks of the Kalgan River near Albany’s Oyster Harbour.