IMS Chairman Named to TriZetto Board

The TriZetto Group Inc., a Newport Beach information technology and services company focused on the health care industry, said Wednesday that it has appointed David M. Thomas to its board of directors.

Thomas, chairman and chief executive of IMS Health Inc. in Westport, Conn., fills the seat vacated Jan. 16 by Victoria R. Fash. Fash resigned when she left as IMS Health’s vice chairman.

TriZetto acquired IMS subsidiary Erisco Managed Care Technologies last fall in a stock swap valued at $183 million. The giant East Coast health data services company ended up with 12 million shares for a 33% stake in TriZetto.

Last March, the tiny West Coast company, which provides software to managed care companies, had agreed to buy IMS for $8 billion in stock. The transaction was highly criticized, losing nearly half its value in two days of trading, and was eventually called off.

Instead, TriZetto bought Erisco and struck a deal in which IMS Health uses the company’s HealthWeb Internet services and technology to build its own online capabilities.