Humana Inc. (NYSE: HUM) will continue to grow its home health segment.
The company’s leaders made that – and other plans – clear during its investor meeting Thursday.
“Our focus on sustained growth and operational efficiency has driven strong year-over-year performance and a positive long-term outlook,” Andy Agwunobi, president of Humana’s home solutions business, said during the call. “Over the past year, CenterWell Home Health has grown same-store total admissions by 5%, significantly outpacing top competitors who have seen flat to negative growth over the same time period.”
CenterWell Home Health completed its rebranding process on Sept. 1.
An efficient sales team, workforce retention and establishing key referral relationships at the state and regional levels were the reasons for that growth, Agwunobi said. That’s why CenterWell has been able to see such strong growth.
And while growing organically has worked well so far for Humana, M&A is still on the agenda.
“M&A is an important pathway to driving profitable growth and supporting our strategic priorities, such as improving nurse capacity and scaling our value-based model,” Agwunobi said. “We will continue to actively monitor the market for accretive acquisition and joint venture opportunities and we expect them to become increasingly available in the near- to mid-term.”
Labor challenges have slowed the overall growth of the home health industry, but Agwunobi has confidence that Humana can take advantage of a fragmented market.
“The industry is also highly fragmented with the top 20 home health players having less than a third of the total market share,” he said. “We believe this offers an opportunity for further growth through mergers and acquisition. With approximately 6% market share, CenterWell Home Health is the market leader in this fragmented industry, and is well positioned to continue to be a leader in growth of its core business going forward.”
Humana continues to see positive momentum with Medicare Advantage (MA) as well.
The company see the value proposition of MA continuing to improve, Alan Wheatley, president of Humana’s retail segment, also said.
“Medicare Advantage drives improved health outcomes and members in MA are healthier than members that join original Medicare,” Wheatley said. “MA health plans and the health care providers that deliver care to our members prioritize preventive care. Working together, we are changing the nature of the way health care is delivered in this country and driving significantly improved health outcomes for our customers.”
The home health business also anchors Humana’s presence as a market leader in home health, Humana President and CEO Bruce Broussard said.
“The complex patients within our home health business provides the opportunity for payment and care model innovation through progressing to value-based models,” Broussard said. “We’re confident care at home will be an increasingly relevant and important side of care going forward and our assets position us with optionality and new growth vectors as that future unfolds.”
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