The Celerian Group, an organization of companies that provides administrative, information technology, training and program management services to state and federal government agencies, recently acquired Karna LLC, an Atlanta, Ga-based organization. The Celerian Group is a division of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina.
The acquisition adds public health expertise, data analytics, IT and other services that complement and expand the Celerian Group’s comprehensive offerings of health science, research, communications, and technology services to both the public and private sectors.
Karna has nearly 10 years of experience providing a broad range of health-related services primarily to the federal government. With a focus on public health, Karna has worked with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Defense Health Agency, and others in addressing nationwide and global health challenges such as HIV/AIDS, Ebola and Zika outbreaks, suicide prevention, laboratory quality, immunizations, health-acquired infections and birth defects, among others. It also supports the CDC World Trade Center Health Program, which is a federal health care program for eligible responders and survivors of the 9/11 terror attacks in New York, the Pentagon, and in Shanksville, Pa.
With its holistic approach, Karna has built a reputation for responsiveness and excellence while offering a breadth of services including full system lifecycle development, statistical analyses, health communications, evaluation, technical assistance, and training, along with subject matter expertise on IT security, laboratory safety, human subject research protection and violence prevention.
According to Bruce Hughes, president of the Celerian Group, strategic acquisitions are part of the group’s overall business objective that seeks to maximize synergies for added customer value. He said, “Karna’s experience and subject matter expertise was very attractive to us. Its leaders have a history of working closely with the CDC as a primary customer, which is an adjacent space to other federal arenas in which we operate. The benefits of longstanding relationships and institutional knowledge are difficult to quantify, but so important in understanding and meeting the complex business needs of customers and stakeholders. We are excited to bring additional depth to our scope of capabilities, and are pleased to have Karna included among the Celerian Group companies.”
Karna, which will operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary from its current headquarters in Atlanta, will also maintain an existing office in Greenbelt, Md. It currently employs approximately 180 people, and will be led by Wayne Myers, who was the organization’s chief operating officer and was promoted to president as part of the acquisition.
About Celerian Group
Celerian Group is an organization of companies with more than 50 years’ combined experience in government programs administration and is a division of BlueCross BlueShield of South Carolina. The group has a well-established reputation for operational excellence, which optimizes performance and reduces costs, thus delivering exceptional value for its customers. It provides federal and state government agencies, as well as private companies, support in business process outsourcing, information technology, data analytics, training and project management services. This expertise includes information technology, claims processing, customer services, social science research functions, and understanding of public health challenges at all levels.