UnitedHealth to buy home health care provider LHC for $5.4B

UnitedHealth Group, which runs the nation’s largest health insurer, today announced it will buy LCH Group, a provider of home healthcare services, for $5.4 billion. UnitedHealth will combine LHC Group with its Optum Health division, which provides primary and urgent care services and surgical care 100 million consumers.

The deal is expected to close in the second half of 2022, subject to LHC Group shareholder approvals, regulatory approvals, and other customary closing conditions.

The acquisition comes amid a major evolution in how healthcare is now delivered; the COVID-19 pandemic’s affects on hospital bed availability — and the virus’s easy transmission — spurred quick acceptance of getting care from any location, and wireless technology made it possible to monitor patients remotely, said Lynne Dunbrack, a group vice president at research firm IDC.

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