WellCare Begins Its Planned Buying Spree

WellCare Health Plans CEO Ken Burdick plans to double the company’s revenue between 2017 and 2021, beginning with mergers and acquisitions. On February 22, WellCare (NYSE: WCG) made a start on those plans, announcing its acquisition of certain assets of Advicare Corporation, a managed care organization that provides Medicaid benefits in South Carolina. As of February 1, 2016, it served approximately 32,500 Medicaid members in the state. Financial terms were not disclosed. WellCare Health Plans provides managed care services for Medicare and Medicaid. As of December 31, 2015, it serves approximately 3.8 million members nationwide. The February 19 announcement by the Centers for... Read More »

Centene Snares Health Net for $6.8 Billion

And so it begins. The managed care merry-go-round picked up speed last week as Centene Corporation (NYSE: CNC) announced it would pay approximately $6.8 billion (including $500 million of debt) to acquire a smaller rival, Health Net, Inc. (NYSE: HNT). A day later, Aetna (NYSE: AET) and Humana (NYSE: HUM) agreed to a deal priced at $37 billion, including debt. That leaves Anthem Inc. (NYSE: ANTM) in pursuit of Cigna (NYSE: CI), which had turned down its latest offer of $47.5 billion the week before. All eyes are now on Molina Healthcare (NYSE: MOH) and WellCare Health Plans (NYSE: WCG), waiting to see if they are targets, or merger partners. Or both. Read More »