Managed Care Company GoHealth Acquired by Centerbridge Partners
Medicare Advantage programs and ancillaries are bringing in big bucks and new buyers. On August 19, Centerbridge Partners, L.P. announced its acquisition of GoHealth, LLC for a reported $1.4 billion from Norwest Equity Partners, the second-largest managed care deal in 2019, so far. The company is a leading provider of Medical Advantage products in the direct-to-consumer channel. Its platform combines technology, data science, and proprietary algorithms to match consumers with the best healthcare policy and carriers in the Medicare, Individual & Family and Small Group markets. Centerbridge and GoHealth broke off negotiations earlier in August over price, according to reports in... Read More »
Centene Acquires WellCare Health Plans
The sleepy Managed Care sector woke up to a big deal last week. Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) announced it will acquired WellCare Health Plans (NYSE: WCG) for approximately $17.4 billion. M&A among managed care companies has been dormant since 2015. That’s when, in June, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the tax subsidies provided as part of the Affordable Care Act. Forty-four deals were announced that year, not including the two mega-mergers between Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Humana (NYSE: HUM) for $37 billion and between Anthem (NYSE: ANTM) and Cigna (NYSE: CI) for $54 billion. Since the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) successfully challenged those mergers in 2017, they’ve... Read More »
CVS and Aetna Make It Final
Fifty-one weeks after pharmacy retail giant CVS Health (NYSE: CVS) announced its intent to acquire managed care giant Aetna (NYSE: AET), the deal that shook the healthcare industry closed. And now the fun begins. When first announced on December 3, 2017, the deal had many industry players scratching their heads. What does a pharmacy chain with 9,700 pharmacy locations and 1,100 MinuteClinic walk-in clinics, not to mention a major pharmacy benefits manager (Caremark), need with a health insurance company? The answer, as CVS CEO Larry Merlo explained over and over again, is the desire to bring a new model of health care to the masses, by expanding services offerings at its pharmacies so... Read More »