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Aite Group LLC today announced the launch of a health insurance consulting practice, which will focus broadly on health care payment trends. Aite, which provides consulting services related to banking, securities, investments and payments, has hired Kunal Pandya as a senior analyst in the new practice. Pandya previously was a consultant with BearingPoint Inc. Aite joins a growing number of companies with payments backgrounds that have launched health care operations recently. Comdata Corp., which issues prepaid cards and processes transactions, last year launched a flexible spending account payment card initiative through a partnership with its parent Ceridian Corp. And last month Comdata announced the hiring of health care payment expert Greg Licata, previously of Metavante Inc., as vice president of health care. Hypercom Corp. early this year hired Ulf Honick, previously director of business management and sales for Siemens AG's health care sector, as the company's first-ever vice president of health care. "Health care transactions are increasingly analogous to other types of payments, and as the health care industry expands it is natural to see payment companies expanding their reach there," Stuart Taylor, Hypercom vice president, global solutions and marketing, tells Cards&Payments, a CardLine sister publication.
