FTC Approves UnitedHealth's $4.3 Billion Purchase of DaVita Physicians Group
June 19 2019 - 6:32PM
Dow Jones News
By Patrick Thomas
Federal regulators approved UnitedHealth Group Inc.'s $4.3
billion purchase of DaVita Inc.'s physician group with the
condition that the UnitedHealth sell one of its newly purchased
health-care provider organizations in Nevada.
The Federal Trade Commission said Wednesday UnitedHealth has
agreed to divest a primary-care practice in the Las Vegas region
known as HealthCare Partners Nevada to Utah-based Intermountain
Healthcare.
UnitedHealth's proposed deal to acquire one of the nation's
biggest doctor groups was announced in December 2017, the same week
as pharmacy giant CVS Health Corp. agreed to buy insurer Aetna
Inc.
DaVita bought medical group HealthCare Partners LLC in 2012 for
$4.42 billion in a deal that diversified it away from its core
kidney-care business. At the time, HealthCare Partners was the
largest U.S. operator of physician groups and networks. DaVita
later expanded it.
The FTC alleged the UnitedHealth-DaVita deal would create a
monopoly in the Las Vegas area and that the combination would have
resulted in higher health-care costs and weaker competition for on
quality, services and other amenities.
UnitedHealth's Optum health-services arm said in a statement
that with DaVita Medical Group, it will serve a combined 16 million
patients. DaVita Medical Group had about 763,000 members in various
states at the end of 2017, according to the company's latest
proxy.
"Together we will improve patient health and experiences while
lowering costs across the continuum of care -- including primary,
specialty, urgent and surgical care," said Andrew Witty, CEO of
Optum, in a statement.
Following the deal with UnitedHealth, DaVita will continue to
operate its kidney-care services business. DaVita serves 203,500
patients at 2,689 outpatient dialysis centers in the U.S. and
operates 234 dialysis centers in nine other countries.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 19, 2019 18:17 ET (22:17 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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