UnitedHealth Group has received a $560 million discount from the initial $4.9 billion price-tag it agreed to pay for DaVita Medical Holding, the dialysis provider’s medical group, as part of an effort to push the deal through the regulatory process.
In an SEC 8-K filing, the companies said the price cut to $4.3 billion was due to a decline in the financial status of the medical group, along with a desire to expedite the process of obtaining clearance from the Federal Trade Commission.
The acquisition, which was initially announced one year ago, would put UnitedHealth’s Optum division in control of almost 300 clinics, 25 urgent-care centers and six outpatient surgery centers across six states.
Behavioral Health, Interoperability and eConsent: Meeting the Demands of CMS Final Rule Compliance
In a webinar on April 16 at 1pm ET, Aneesh Chopra will moderate a discussion with executives from DocuSign, Velatura, and behavioral health providers on eConsent, health information exchange and compliance with the CMS Final Rule on interoperability.
The companies said the deal – which has already received approval from the California Department of Managed Health Care – is expected to close in Q1 of 2019.
UnitedHealth has been ramping up its provider business line through its subsidiary OptumCare, which directly employs or is affiliated with more than 30,000 physicians. The DaVita deal would add another roughly 17,000 doctors to its ranks.
The moves are part of a larger trend among traditional payer organizations to vary their revenue streams and control costs by more closely integrating their financial products with more cost-effective clinical care.
Large scale examples of this include CVS Health’s mega-merger with insurer Aetna and the increasingly close partnership between Walgreens and Humana.
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
Alongside its efforts to snap up providers like Seattle-based Polyclinic and Surgical Care Affiliates, the company is also looking at launching a fully portable individual health record (IHR) for its members, which it plans to be accessible by 50 million patients and more than 1 million clinicians by the end of 2019.
Photo: Kritchanut, Getty Images
