Houlihan Lokey Advises Aquiline Capital Partners

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that it has advised Aquiline Capital Partners LLC (Aquiline) on the formation of MDpanel and subsequent acquisitions of California Medical Legal Specialists (CMLS) and California Medical Evaluators (CME).

Aquiline has announced the formation of MDpanel, a new platform dedicated to the efficient delivery of medical opinions as part of the workers’ compensation insurance claims process. Following the launch of MDpanel, CMLS and CME—two leading providers of support services for physicians performing qualified medical evaluations (QMEs) for workers’ compensation claims—joined the platform.

Founded in 1985 in Fresno, California, CMLS is a leading provider of high-quality physician practice management services in the California workers’ compensation market. CMLS has been instrumental in building hundreds of successful QME and agreed medical evaluation (AME) physician practices over the past 38 years. CMLS’ comprehensive management services, which include front office and administrative assistance for QMEs/AMEs, offer best-in-class support for new or experienced physicians seeking to augment their core medical practices.

Founded in 2010 in Los Angeles, CME is the fastest-growing and third-largest provider of practice management services for California physicians conducting med-legal evaluations. CME provides high-value administrative tasks so that CME physicians need to focus only on QME/IME evaluations and reporting, creating a better experience for the physicians and a concise, high-value, and timely report for attorneys and insurers. In addition to administrative services, CME also provides in-house training, including test preparation, and quarterly reviews of each physician’s performance across a diverse selection of med-legal evaluations—based on data and insights that no other organization provides.

Aquiline is a private investment firm based in New York and London, investing in companies across financial services and technology, healthcare, and business services. The firm has $9.9 billion in assets under management as of June 30, 2023.

Houlihan Lokey served as the exclusive buyside advisor to Aquiline on its acquisition of both CMLS and CME.

Houlihan Lokey’s Healthcare Group is among the largest dedicated healthcare investment banking groups in the world. In 2022, the Group closed 37 transactions and was ranked by Refinitiv as the No. 1 advisor for U.S. healthcare M&A transactions under $1 billion.* This transaction builds on Houlihan Lokey’s leading track record in the workers’ compensation sector.

*Excludes accounting firms and brokers.