A new report claims that home health giant Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) are closing in on a sizable divestment package to help circumvent antitrust concerns from regulators.
UnitedHealth Group and its Optum arm announced a $3.3 billion deal to acquire Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Amedisys last year, luring the in-home care company away from previous suitor Option Care Health (Nasdaq: OPCH). Since the deal was announced, UnitedHealth Group has faced mounting pressure from individual lawmakers and federal regulators alike.
Specifically, the new report comes from The Capitol Forum, a news organization that covers antitrust, merger control, corporate investigations and related topics.
In that report, The Capitol Forum claims that UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys have a plan to divest “more than 100 locations” to a private equity-backed buyer. The Capitol Forum previously reported that UnitedHealth Group was trying to sell 87 locations.
Stock market opinion and analysis service Seeking Alpha also picked up the news, noting that Amedisys shares were up 2% in light of the development.
At this point, it is unclear exactly where those locations would be, or whether those centers deliver home health or hospice services — or both.
Neither Amedisys nor UnitedHealth Group responded to a request for comment on the matter from Home Health Care News, and HHCN was unable to independently verify The Capitol Forum’s reporting. HHCN previously explored what an Amedisys divestment strategy could look like as part of an HHCN+ Update.
As of the end of 2024’s first quarter, Amedisys had 346 home health care centers in 34 states and Washington, D.C., according to a company investor presentation. It had 165 hospice centers in 31 states at Q1’s end.
Amedisys divested its personal care business in March 2023.
A separate, earlier note from financial services firm Jefferies recently noted that Amedisys leadership was, indeed, weighing divestment options. In that note, Jefferies analysts also maintained they expected the UnitedHealth Group-Amedisys deal to be completed in the next few months.
For full-year 2023, the Amedisys home health business had a net service revenue of about $1.4 billion.
Contextually, the UnitedHealth Group-Amedisys deal has faced a heightened level of regulator pressure because UnitedHealth Group also owns LHC Group – another giant within the still fragmented home health industry.
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