UnitedHealth Group closed Wednesday on its $5.4 billion acquisition of LHG Group. The development comes nearly a year after the massive health insurance firm announced a deal to buy the major Louisiana-based home health, personal care and hospice firm.

UnitedHealth filed a form 8-K with the Securities and Exchange Commission early Wednesday, announcing the completion of the merger. LHC Group was delisted Tuesday from the Nasdaq Stock Exchange.

Minnesota-based UnitedHealth first disclosed plans to acquire LHC Group through its Optum division last March. It said the home care company would “greatly enhance the reach of Optum’s value-based capabilities along the full continuum of care.” However, the deal dragged on for months after the Federal Trade Commission requested additional information last summer about pay in the healthcare industry and bargaining power of minimum wage healthcare workers in the home care sector.

The acquisition is among the largest in the home care industry, eclipsed only by CVS Health’s $8 billion acquisition late last year of tech-enabled home care firm Signify Health and Humana’s $8.1 billion acquisition two years ago of Kindred at Home. It marks the second major home health acquisition by an insurance firm.

Lafayette, LA-based LHC Group operates in 37 states and the District of Columbia, providing home health, hospice, home- and community-based services and facility-based care. The company struggled financially during the first three quarters of last year as ongoing headwinds from the COVID-19 pandemic eroded revenues.