Insurer Humana pushes into delivery of health care

Humana will buy part of Kindred Healthcare's home health business, the latest example of a health insurer growing more involved in the delivery of health care on top of handling the bills for it.

The insurer said Tuesday it will pay about $800 million in cash for a 40-percent stake in the business, which serves about 130,000 patients daily and brings in about $2.5 billion in revenue annually. The rest of the business will be owned by the private equity firms TPG Capital and Welsh, Carson, Anderson & Stowe.

Humana said the deal will help it manage chronic conditions, keep costs down and improve health. CEO Bruce Broussard said in a prepared statement that care delivered at home is a "vital element" in improving the health of older people living with those conditions, which can include diabetes or heart disease.

Humana Inc., based in Louisville, Kentucky, is one of the nation's biggest providers of Medicare Advantage coverage, which involves privately run versions of the federal Medicare program for people who are over 65 or disabled. It also provides Medicare prescription drug coverage and offers commercial insurance.

Health insurers and other entities have been pushing deeper into managing or providing patient care in order to cut costs and improve quality. The basic idea is to help people stick with treatment plans, stay on medication and live healthy lifestyles in order to ward off expensive care like hospital stays.

Tuesday's deal comes several days after another insurer, UnitedHealth Group Inc., said it would spend nearly $5 billion deal to buy hundreds of clinics from DaVita Inc. UnitedHealth's Optum segment runs more than 1,100 primary, urgent and surgery care centers.

Earlier this month, CVS Health said it would pay about $69 billion to buy the health insurer Aetna in a bid to expand the role of its drugstores in managing patient care.

Humana expects to close its acquisition this summer, but Kindred shareholders still need to approve it.