Dive Brief:
- Humana is acquiring home-based services provider One Homecare Solutions from a private equity firm to beef up its at-home care offerings, as a growing number of payers foray into direct medical delivery.
- The acquisition of Miramar, Florida-based One Homecare, which does business as Onehome, follows Humana's decision to snap up home health giant Kindred at Home for $5.7 billion and is meant to boost the insurer's value-based home health strategy.
- Financial terms of the deal, expected to close in the second quarter of this year, were not disclosed.
Dive Insight:
Onehome provides a variety of home-based services, combining care coordination and benefits management with a network of home health providers to serve national and regional insurance plans, with a focus on the Medicare Advantage population. The company launched in 2013 and grew to cover more than 1 million health plan members in eight states, including Humana members since 2015.
Onehome manages post-acute needs like infusion care, nursing, occupational and physical therapy and durable medical equipment services at patients' homes, as well as sites of care placement through its skilled nursing facility at-home programs.
Demand for such services is rising as the U.S. population ages: Roughly 10,000 baby boomers turn 65 every day, and the home is increasingly becoming accepted as an appropriate site of care, especially following the coronavirus pandemic.
Louisville, Kentucky-based Humana has been focused on the home for a while. Its executives say the $5.7 billion Kindred deal, wherein Humana agreed to acquire the remaining 60% stake in the provider from two private equity partners, has resulted in the biggest home healthcare business in the nation.
The Kindred deal — the largest in Humana's history — is the latest example of the blurring lines between payer and provider.
Cigna bought telehealth provider MDLive this year for an undisclosed amount, while UnitedHealth plans to acquire data analytics giant Change Healthcare for $13 billion to bolster its health services business, Optum.
For its part, Humana says it's looking to develop a new value-based home health model that cuts costs while improving outcomes. Susan Diamond, the president of Humana's home business, said the acquisition of Onehome, which runs a full capitated model in Florida and Texas, is a "key component of that strategy" in a Monday statement.
Humana said Onehome's capabilities that attracted the acquisition include significant experience in risk-based contracting; its network and utilization management systems for streamlining the administration of at-home visits; and that it owns and manages home-based DME and infusion services for members in its core geographies that can be expanded into other markets.
Humana said that DME ownership results in more consistent equipment utilization by members, tamping down on waste and preventing unfavorable health outcomes down the line.
The payer is nabbing Onehome from WayPoint Capital Partners, the PE affiliate of New York-based family investment office Privet Capital. Humana, which reaffirmed its 2021 outlook just last week, expects the acquisition to have an immaterial impact on yearly earnings.
