Growth in CenterWell’s primary care clinics will be an engine to drive growth in its home health unit, Humana CFO Susan Diamond told investors Monday during a JP Morgan conference.
“If you can get primary care, they really pull the strings,” Diamond said during the conference. “They can refer into CenterWell pharmacy; they can refer into Centerwell Home Health based on the benefit they know.”
Diamond told investors Humana is focused on opening new primary care clinics under the CenterWell brand and acquiring individual primary care practices this year in an effort to expand more aggressively into the senior healthcare market. Last year, Humana paid between $450 million and $550 million to acquire its first senior-focused, value-based primary care providers under the CenterWell brand.
Last fall, Humana rebranded its Kindred at Home unit under CenterWell Home Health, which operates in 38 states. At the end of 2022, CenterWell Home Health had grown the number of value-based patients to 700,000, according to Diamond.
She said the brand — which includes primary care, home health and pharmacy — is trying to get a handle on how the individual assets can produce better patient outcomes and drive down healthcare costs.
“We are trying to understand the drivers of adverse outcomes and what interventions are required and can those other assets offer an alternative intervention,” Diamond explained.
Humana and UnitedHealth Group have reinvented themselves from traditional health insurers to more holistic healthcare companies. Humana acquired Kindred at Home two years ago for $8.1 billion. UnitedHealth Group announced the acquisition of home care giant LHC Group for $5.4 billion early last year. It hopes to close that deal sometime this quarter.
