Home health provider Amedisys on Monday agreed to a sweetened all-cash offer of $101 per share from UnitedHealth Group’s Optum health services business.
The new offer, valued at nearly $3.3 billion, is $1 more than a previous Optum bid and comes as large healthcare companies, are expanding their home health operations as a way to expand in-home medical services.
UnitedHealth, which also operates the nation’s largest health insurer, UnitedHealthcare, and its rivals see healthcare in the home as yet another way to ensure patients are getting cost-effective treatment in the right place, at the right time, and in the right amount.
Earlier this year, for example, CVS Health spent $8 billion on Signify Health as part of its effort to add a home care provider and bolster the drugstore chain’s healthcare and technology platform. CVS already owns the health insurance giant Aetna and more than 1,000 MinuteClinics.
UnitedHealth’s latest offer is also more than the $97.38 per share all-stock deal made by Option Care in May.
“The combination of Amedisys with Optum unites two organizations dedicated to providing compassionate, value-based comprehensive care to patients and their families,” the companies said in a brief statement. “The agreement is subject to Amedisys shareholder approvals, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions.”
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