A year since they officially joined forces, the merger between Empyrean Benefits Solutions and Bloom Health is complete.

Empyrean acquired its long-time partner in June 2016, cementing the Houston-headquartered company's involvement in the delivery of digital benefits. 

"Our acquisition and integration of Bloom is complete," Rich Wolfe, Empyrean's founder and CEO, told HR Daily Wire. "There were a lot of synergies gained with the acquisition and integration supporting our continued focus on bringing leading capabilities to our collective clients and partners." 

Bloom Health, based in Minneapolis, was founded in 2009 and offers health plans online.

The two were already partners prior to last year's deal as Bloom used Empyrean's technology to help deliver its employee benefits package.

Bloom sold a majority stake of its company to Wellpoint -- later changed to Anthem -- in 2011. Health Care Service Corp. and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan. All three insurers continue to provide health plans through the newly combined company, Empyrean said in a news release.

“Bloom has been a great innovation partner for us,” Wolfe said at the time of the acquisition. “We saw an opportunity to build on and accelerate our mutual success by combining forces, and we are excited to welcome Bloom’s employees, customers, and partners to the Empyrean family.”

Empyrean’s purpose-built benefits administration technology platform is already fully incorporated into Bloom’s employee benefit delivery solutions, the company said. The companies serve hundreds of employers, and in the process have demonstrated the ability to deliver benefit solutions to companies ranging from 50 to tens of thousands of lives, according to Empyrean.

“Joining forces is another logical step towards eliminating the typical compromises the market has had to consistently contend with,” Wolfe said. “Together, our goal is to provide the best health and welfare benefits engagement experience possible for our clients, and their employees and consumers, that is without compromise.”

Empyrean and Bloom already have integrated operations, and both are committed to providing a smooth services and support transition for customers and partners.

“This is the culmination of a seven-year journey that the Bloom team undertook in pursuit of transforming the health care benefits marketplace,” Bloom Health CEO Jim Priebe said. “As a part of Empyrean, and together with our plan providers, we now have all the pieces in place to deliver a comprehensive benefits engagement and administration solution to employers who want to provide their people with great choices and great service.”

Empyrean Benefit Solutions provides technology and services for managing employee health benefits programs, including enrollment, eligibility management, ACA reporting, and other plan administration services to employers, insurance brokers, and health care exchanges.

Bloom delivers its secure cloud-based solution and personalized support through health plan, employer, and agency partners across the United States, according to the company.