Home Health & Hospice Week

Insurer sweetens its offer to beat out Option Care.

It’s official: The Option Care Inc.-Amedisys merger is off. That’s because UnitedHealth’s Optum division is acquiring the Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based chain for a whopping $3.3 billion in cash.

Amedisys Inc. and Optum “have agreed to combine,” the national provider confirms in a June 26 press release. “The agreement calls for the acquisition of Amedisys’s outstanding common stock in an all-cash transaction for $101 per share.”

That’s a dollar higher than its previous offer (see HHHW by AAPC, Vol. XXXII, No. 21).

UnitedHealth Group/Optum acquired Lafayette, Louisiana-based LHC Group Inc. for a whopping $5.4 billion earlier this year. But the deal was significantly delayed by Federal Trade Commission investigations into antitrust issues.

The newly confirmed agreement “is subject to Amedisys shareholder approvals, regulatory approvals and other customary closing conditions,” Amedisys acknowledges in the release. But experts predict the FTC will approve the deal, though some market divestitures may be required.

Option Care shares rose 3 percent after the announcement, while those of Amedisys and UnitedHealth were largely flat, Reuters reports.

The deal “just positions Optum and UnitedHealth Group to continue to capitalize on this transition to home,” Tyler Giesting with Chicago-based digital services firm West Monroe tells the Minnesota StarTribune.

The deal will advance “value-based care for patients,” the release emphasizes.