Humana Acquisitions & Mergers

HUMANA ACQUISITIONS & MERGERS

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LIST OF MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS BY HUMANA

  • 1978: Humana acquires American Medicorp Inc., doubling the company's size.
  • 2010: Humana acquires Concentra Inc. for $790 million.
  • 2015: Aetna announces plans to acquire Humana for $37 billion in cash and stock, but the merger is blocked by courts in 2017.
  • 2018: Humana acquires a 40% stake in Kindred Healthcare's home health, hospice and community care businesses for $800 million.
  • 2019: Humana acquires Enclara Healthcare.

AMERICAN MEDICORP INC.

Medicorp hq
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In 1978, Humana acquired American Medicorp Inc. for nearly $500 million—doubling the company's size by adding 33 hospitals to its portfolio.

The acquisition increased its revenue and capacity, laying the groundwork for Human to become the world's largest hospital operator in the 1980s.

CONCENTRA INC.

Concentra medical facility
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The year 2010 marked Humana’s resurgent push back into the direct delivery of healthcare services through a momentous $790 million dollar acquisition of Concentra Inc.

Concentra operated over 300 medical centers across dozens of states providing urgent care, occupational medicine, and physical therapy services.

For Humana, still primarily focused on health insurance, the purchase represented a major strategic shift after having spun off its extensive hospital operations back in the early 1990s.

Yet Humana’s leadership saw room for significant synergy. Concentra’s convenient and affordable community-based care centers could help Humana provide better patient access while also lowering costs—an increasing area of focus in the high-stakes world of health insurance.

Thus, after the final terms were hammered out in March 2010, Humana obtained full ownership of Concentra’s national urgent care platform—effectively returning the insurer to the direct delivery side of US healthcare on a large scale for the first time in over 15 years.

Humana’s prescient move to acquire Concentra foreshadowed the rise of retail medicine and increasing convergence of payers and providers.

It demonstrated Humana cementing its status as an highly adaptive pillar of American healthcare—one capable of repositioning itself across the evolving landscape for continued leadership over the long haul.

AETNA

Aetna HQ
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The year 2015 brought seismic tremors to the landscape of American health insurance, as industry titan Aetna unveiled plans for a monumental $37 billion dollar acquisition of rival Humana.

If approved, the cash and stock merger deal would fuse two insurance giants into a singular colossus boasting over 30 million medical plan members nation-wide.

However, skepticism mounted quickly amidst antitrust concerns over the creation of such a dominant, new insurance Goliath.

Over the next two years, Aetna and Humana vigorously sought regulatory approval for their blockbuster consolidation agreement, aiming to finalize the arrangement by the end of 2016.

Yet both the Department of Justice and multiple Federal judges ultimately opposed the union on grounds it violated anti-competition laws - spelling doom for the insurance mega-merger by early 2017.

In the wake of Aetna's foiled acquisition attempt, Humana regained its independent footing while the crash-and-burn episode highlighted intensifying scrutiny facing M&A between gigantic health insurers.

KINDRED HEALTHCARE

Kindred Healthcare nurse
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Looking to strengthen its home healthcare offerings, Humana invested approximately $800 million to acquire a 40% stake in select Kindred Healthcare businesses in 2018.

It helped Humana offer in-home services like hospice, rehabilitation, and skilled nursing care.

Now holding a sizable interest in Kindred’s home health, hospice, and community care divisions, Humana gained both investment exposure and operational leverage as alternate sites of care provision gained increasing prominence.

This was an early indicator of the decentralization of care settings away from overwhelmed hospitals toward more personalized delivery in residential environments.

In the following years, Humana would move to take outright ownership of the former Kindred at Home branches it originally acquired a minority stake in during 2018.

Thus for Humana, the initial Kindred transaction marked a pivotal first step toward command of home health—a sector growing exponentially in parallel with shifting demographic realities.

ENCLARA HEALTHCARE

drug by Enclara
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In 2019, Humana acquired Enclara Healthcare (a specialized pharmacy services provider).

Enclara managed complex medication regimens for seriously ill patients, with an emphasis on home-based care.

This purchase built up Humana's pharmacy capabilities while aligning with industry shifts toward value-based care and customized services for high-need populations.

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