A new report claims that home health giant Amedisys Inc. (Nasdaq: AMED) and UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) are completing a major divestiture package to address antitrust concerns from regulators.
UnitedHealth Group and its Optum arm announced a $3.3 billion deal last year to acquire Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based Amedisys, luring the home care company from previous suitor Option Care Health ( Nasdaq: OPCH). Since the deal was announced, UnitedHealth Group has faced increasing pressure from individual lawmakers and federal regulators.
Special, the new report comes from Capitol Forum, a news organization covering antitrust, merger control, corporate investigations and related topics.
In that report, Capitol Forum claims that UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys plan to sell “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 on the news and noted that Amedisys shares rose 2% in light of the development.
At this point, it is unclear exactly where these locations would be located, or whether these centers would provide home health care or hospice services – or both.
Neither Amedisys nor UnitedHealth Group responded to a request from Home Health Care News for comment on the matter, and HHCN was unable to independently verify Capitol Forum’s reporting. HHCN previously explored what an Amedisys divestment strategy might look like as part of an HHCN+ update.
According to an investor presentation from the company, at the end of the first quarter of 2024, Amedisys had 346 home health centers in 34 states and Washington, D.C. At the end of the first quarter, there were 165 hospice centers in 31 states.
Amedisys divested its personal care business in March 2023.
A separate, earlier statement from financial services firm Jefferies recently indicated that Amedisys’ leadership is indeed weighing divestiture options. In that note, analysts at Jefferies also reiterated that they expect the deal between UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys to close in the next few months.
For full-year 2023, Amedisys’ home health business generated net services revenue of approximately $1.4 billion.
Relatedly, the deal between UnitedHealth Group and Amedisys faced increased pressure from regulators because UnitedHealth Group also owns LHC Group – another giant in the still-fragmented home health industry.