Insurers, Private Equity Firms Are Buying Up Home Care Providers

April 15

Health insurers are taking over home health care providers: Most notably, the two largest Medicare Advantage health insurers, UnitedHealth Group and Humana Inc., have each moved to acquire sizable home care providers in the last year. Health care insiders tell AIS Health, a division of MMIT, that home health deals by insurers will become more frequent as plans hope to avoid reimbursing long-term hospital stays by treating members at home — even as private equity firms make inroads into the home health space with an eye toward increasing margins across the industry.

UnitedHealth on March 29 said it plans to spend approximately $6 billion in cash to purchase LHC Group, Inc., a home health care company. In August 2021, Humana completed its acquisition of Kindred at Home, which it has since begun to fold into its CenterWell provider brand. In a recent earnings call, Humana CEO Bruce Broussard said that the carrier is looking for still more home care providers to purchase.

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Health Plan Weekly

Peter Johnson

Peter has worked as a journalist since 2011 and has covered health care since 2020. At AIS Health, Peter covers trends in finance, business and policy that affect the health insurance and pharma sectors. For Health Plan Weekly, he covers all aspects of the U.S. health insurance sector, including employer-sponsored insurance, Medicaid managed care, Medicare Advantage and the Affordable Care Act individual marketplaces. In Radar on Drug Benefits, Peter covers the operations of (and conflicts between) pharmacy benefit managers and pharmaceutical manufacturers, with a particular focus on pricing dynamics and market access. Before joining AIS Health, Peter covered transportation, public safety and local government for various outlets in Seattle, his hometown and current place of residence. He graduated with a B.A. from Colby College.