Humana acquiring onehome in effort to expand value-based home care

Photo: Martin Barraud/Getty Images

Major insurer Humana has signaled its intent to acquire One Homecare Solutions, or onehome, in an effort to grow its presence in the value-based home healthcare space. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though the insurer expects it will not have a significant impact on its financials for the year.

Humana will snag onehome from Waypoint Capital Partners, the private equity affiliate of a New York-based family investment office.

Having served Humana members since 2015, onehome is a provider of a variety of home-based services, as well as a convener of home health services stakeholders and a care and risk manager. It has a value-based model in Florida and Texas.

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

This is another foray by Humana into provider care and an effort to control those costs through risk-based contracts.

The acquisition comes on the heels of Humana's recent announcement to acquire and integrate Kindred at Home. Both are meant to enable the insurer to deliver value-based home health on a national scale.

onehome's model is centered around coordinating the needs of patients, physicians, hospitals and health plans for home-based patient care. It currently manages a range of post-acute needs including infusion care, nursing, occupational therapy, physical therapy and durable medical equipment services at patients' homes, as well as appropriate site-of-care placement through its skilled nursing facility at-home programs.

Specifically, Humana is looking to tap into onehome's experience with risk-based contracting, as well as its fully capitated Florida and Texas models, which will serve as a blueprint for expanding similar contracting in other states. Humana is also looking to tap into onehome's management and utilization management systems to create more efficiency in the administration of at-home patient visits. 

One thing that was attractive to Humana in pursuing the acquisition was that onehome owns and manages home-based DME and infusion services for members in certain geographic areas. The insurer said these can be expanded to other markets and deliver more simplified coordination of these services.

The insurer expects onehome's ownership of DME services to reduce waste and deliver more consistent equipment utilization by members, thereby improving both value and outcomes.

The acquisition is expected to close sometime in the second quarter of this year, pending the customary state and federal regulatory approvals. 

THE LARGER TREND

The new acquisition follows the April announcement that Humana will purchase the remaining 60% interest in home health and hospice provider Kindred at Home, making the insurer the latter's sole owner. Humana is buying the remaining interest from TPG Capital and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe in a deal that values Kindred at $8.1 billion, which includes the payer's existing 40% share that is valued at $2.4 billion.

Under the terms of the deal, Kindred's home health operations will be integrated into Humana's Home Solutions business and it will take on the same branding as Humana's new payer-agnostic health services arm, transitioning to CenterWell Home Health.

Meanwhile, it's becoming more common for payers to expand their business models. In recent months, Cigna's health services subsidiary Evernorth acquired telehealth provider MDLive for an undisclosed amount. UnitedHealth's Optum announced plans to acquire Change Healthcare, but the deal has received pushback from the American Hospital Association, which said the proposed deal raises antitrust concerns.

ON THE RECORD

"At Humana, we are implementing a strategy to build a new Value-Based Home Health model that will improve patient outcomes, increase satisfaction for patients and providers, and provide greater value for health plan partners," said Susan Diamond, segment president for Humana's Home Business and the organization's interim chief financial officer. 

"The acquisition of onehome is a key component of that strategy," she said. "It complements our recent announcement to fully acquire and integrate Kindred at Home, and brings together additional capabilities that will allow Humana to deliver value-based home health at a national scale. By combining onehome's value-based approach with Kindred's home health services and Humana's analytical capabilities and clinical expertise, we believe we can create a transformational value-based offering to serve more people, including non-Humana plan members, nationwide."

"Since first launching onehome in 2013, we have had a front row seat at the care-in-the-home revolution that is driven by our society's desire to positively impact clinical outcomes, affordability, and patient experience," said Ramon Falero, CEO and co-founder of onehome. "We built the onehome model with a focus on integrating all key home-based patient care delivery needs with risk-taking capabilities and robust technology. We have had the privilege of serving millions of patients with this model -- the need for which has only increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. We are honored to now have the opportunity to expand our model as part of the Humana team, with whom we share the mission of bringing healing home."
 

Twitter: @JELagasse
Email the writer: jeff.lagasse@himssmedia.com