Acquisitions continue to shake up our industry, but now at a faster pace and on a larger scale than ever before. TPAs and brokers are buying TPAs. Banks are acquiring TPAs or books of business. Private equity is consolidating at speed. Health plans are purchasing TPAs, books of business, and platforms.
All of this change can spark feelings of fear, frustration, or even grief. That reaction is completely understandable. You are focused on growth, sustainability, and retaining clients, and market disruption can make those goals feel less like a challenge and more like a sinkhole.
Still, with the right next moves, what comes next can be transformative for you and your business.
What Happens Next?
First Move: Evaluation
Acquisitions in our industry are routinely disruptive. When major platform players change hands, change is inevitable.
The switch flips – the new is on, the old is off. The deal is inked, and then the real questions begin. Change takes time to develop and implement, and there may not be a new status quo for quite a while. New support structures may emerge. Workflows may change. Custodial and card relationships may shift. The critical question is whether these changes enhance or hinder your growth strategy and whether they impact the number one priority: your clients.
Then there is the competitor versus competition question. This is often the biggest unknown, and only time will tell. It requires both a gut check and a data check. On the gut side, how do you feel about the change? On the data side, have you competed before, and will you be competing in the future based on your growth or acquisition strategy?
Strategy and product roadmap are usually the next questions. What is the new direction? Which priorities stay and which fall off? Roadmaps matter because they signal where investment and attention will actually go.
Resources matter too. How critical are the resources you have with your platform partner? How important is the relationship with your account manager or account management team? And how much does change affect what ultimately matters most: client retention, client delight, and your ability to grow.
Simple evaluation summary: How does this change affect your primary source of revenue, your clients, and how does it affect your growth strategy?
Deciding What to Do
Next Move: Action
So what should you do?
Here is a practical way to think about it.
1. What was the reason for the deal? The strategy matters. There is the stated strategy and then there is the unspoken, bigger-picture strategy, often the kind discussed well above anyone’s pay grade. How does it affect you? How much transparency have you been given? And what does your gut tell you?
2. What does history tell you? Two words matter here: history and you. How you experience change can differ greatly from how others do. How does past history align with your strategic future?
3. Cement walls: protecting your data. This is about your data and your clients’ data. Understanding who has access to what is critical, especially in a competitor or competition scenario.
4. What does staying actually cost? Staying may cost you differentiation. It can mean lost revenue from clients who exit and slowed momentum as you adjust your strategy to align with a potentially new vendor reality.
5. What does leaving get you, and what does it cost? Migration costs are rarely planned, and many of the real costs are tied to time: time spent learning new platforms and transitioning operations. The real question is whether a move enables differentiation, supports your growth strategy, and allows you to position yourself in the market the way you want without constant concern about what might change next.
6. Which platform partner can actually deliver what you need?
- Do they offer everything you need, or may need, under one roof?
- Does the platform support great employer and consumer experiences while also enabling operational efficiency?
- Is the relationship strategic and flexible?
- Is onboarding a box with instructions, or a personalized, in-depth experience?
- Can you offset operational burden through support for functions like claims processing and customer service so you can shift resources toward client-facing and revenue-generating activities?
Why DataPath (and Why Now?)
When you are evaluating your options, the difference is not just technology. The difference is who is built to help you succeed.
Having navigated decades of market shifts and industry disruption, DataPath brings seasoned perspective and pattern recognition that often spots change before it becomes obvious. That experience informs a product roadmap designed to evolve with you, not force you into a one-size-fits-all model. We believe personalization and customization matter because every TPA needs to show up in the market in their own way.
As an independent, privately held organization, our focus remains squarely on supporting our partners’ growth. That independence allows us to invest intentionally in platform capabilities, flexibility, and long-term relationships without external pressure to compromise direction.
Our platform supports CDH accounts including FSA, HSA, HRA, and transit, along with COBRA, retiree and direct billing, and well-being benefits, all within one unified system. The result is a streamlined, cohesive experience that strengthens operations and improves employer and participant satisfaction.
Clients can also layer in BPO services such as contact center support to enable operational scale without adding overhead, as well as partner marketing support to help drive new business. In today’s market, selling more while operating lean matters more than ever, especially as relationships shift and traditional partners may also become competitors.
Market disruption is accelerating, and while it can feel unsettling, it is also incredibly exciting. Growth opportunities have never been more accessible.
The TPAs who emerge strongest will be the ones who move with intention and choose partners whose success is directly tied to theirs.
Are you ready for what is next? If recent market moves have you thinking, let’s talk.
Sherry Lawton is the Chief Growth Officer for DataPath, Inc. She has over two decades of expertise in HSA banking and consumer-directed healthcare and is responsible for spearheading market opportunity identification and propelling revenue growth for DataPath.