Health Plan Weekly

  • News Briefs: Humana Will Divest Kindred Divisions

    Humana Inc. will spin off subsidiary Kindred at Home’s hospice and personal care divisions, with private equity fund Clayton, Dubilier & Rice taking majority ownership in exchange for $2.8 billion cash. Humana will retain a minority share in the new hospice company, which the deal values at $3.4 billion. David Causby, president and CEO of the divisions in question, will lead the new firm. “We are excited by the new strategic partnership structure with Humana and look forward to working closely with CD&R to pursue growth,” said Causby.

    Former CMS Administrator Leslie Norwalk resigned from Centene Corp.’s board, citing “the governance process surrounding a recent important decision.” Norwalk in her resignation letter said that process “fell egregiously short of what I and a number of other Board members considered appropriate for making an informed decision.” Norwalk added that the board did not debate the move in question. Her resignation comes shortly after the death of longtime CEO Michael Neidorff, whom Sarah London replaced in March.

  • Insurers, Private Equity Firms Are Buying Up Home Care Providers

    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.

  • UnitedHealth Sees Sunny 1Q, Says Deferred Care Impact Is MIA

    UnitedHealth Group on April 14 reported first-quarter 2022 financial results that beat Wall Street expectations and led the health care behemoth to raise its full-year earnings guidance. The firm also offered insights into health care utilization trends that could serve as good news for the entire industry, as executives said they still have not seen evidence of members’ health conditions deteriorating because of care deferred during the pandemic.

    Overall, care utilization in the quarter was roughly at baseline levels, Chief Financial Officer John Rex said during UnitedHealth’s conference call to discuss quarterly results. With the Omicron variant-driven surge early in the year, the company recorded about 40,000 COVID-19-related hospitalizations in January — “the highest of any month since the onset of the pandemic,” Rex said. But by March, hospitalizations declined to around 2,000 as the surge receded.

  • CareFirst Aims to Bolster Public Health With New Program, Exec

    CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, a not-for-profit payer serving a population of 5.3 million in Maryland, Virginia and Washington D.C., has launched a new Public Health Infrastructure team and chosen a leader for its team: Djinge Lindsay, M.D.

    CareFirst says its new public health initiative is all about improving health outcomes and health equity for its members. Lindsay tells AIS Health, a division of MMIT, that she and her team plan to leverage data and tackle the biggest barriers standing in the way of health equity. 

  • MCO Stock Performance, March 2022

    Here’s how major health insurers’ stock performed in March 2022. UnitedHealth Group had the highest closing stock price among major commercial insurers as of March 31, 2022, at $509.97. Molina Healthcare, Inc. had the highest closing stock price among major Medicaid insurers at $333.59.
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