Private Equity · Pre-Acquisition
Security Due Diligence Ahead of a Healthcare Add-On
A private equity firm evaluating a healthcare technology add-on needed a clear picture of inherited cyber risk before closing. A structured assessment surfaced access-control and vendor-management gaps within two weeks, informing deal terms and a 90-day remediation plan post-close.
The situation
Illustrative scenarioA representative engagement. Details are generalized and no client is identified.
The sponsor had a signed letter of intent on a healthcare technology company that would be bolted onto an existing platform investment. The target handled protected health information for its customers, had never been through a formal security assessment, and its IT was run by a small team already stretched by the deal process. The deal team needed to know, before close, what risk they were inheriting, what it would cost to fix, and whether anything should change in the purchase agreement.
What Summit did
The work, in the order it happened.
A two-week diligence sprint scoped to the questions that move deal terms: how customer data is protected, who can reach it, which vendors touch it, and what happens when something goes wrong.
Document review and structured interviews with the target's leadership and IT lead, kept to a few hours of their time so the deal process was not slowed.
Control-by-control review against HIPAA's Security Rule and the NIST Cybersecurity Framework, rated for likelihood and business impact rather than a raw list of findings.
Findings translated into deal language: which items warranted a representation or an escrow, which belonged in the first 90 days, and which could wait for the platform's normal program.
What the client received
Deliverables written to be used, not filed.
The outcome
The sponsor closed with clear eyes: the two most significant gaps, access control and vendor management, were addressed in the purchase agreement and became the first items on the post-close plan. The platform's security lead inherited a roadmap rather than a surprise.
This scenario reflects the kind of work Summit does under its M&A Advisory service. It is illustrative; results depend on the organization.
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