UnitedHealth is joining a
number of other major US health insurers that have entered the
Medicare Advantage market.
This comes with the
announcement that it is to acquire XLHealth, a sponsor of Medicare
Advantage health plans with a primary focus on Medicare recipients
with special needs, such as those with chronic illness. Terms of
the cash deal were not announced.
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UnitedHealthcare CEO Gail
Boudreaux commented that combining XLHealth’s capabilities in
serving high-risk, chronically-ill Medicare beneficiaries with
UnitedHealthcare’s Medicare and Medicaid will “significantly
enhance” UnitedHealthcare’s ability to serve older
Americans.
XLHealth currently serves
some 113,000 Medicare Advantage members in Arkansas, Georgia,
Maryland, Missouri, South Carolina and Texas, and will expand into
Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, New Mexico, New York and Wisconsin in
2012. XLHealth anticipates that it will generate revenue of more
than $2bn in 2012.
UnitedHealth’s acquisition of XLHealth follows closely on
the heels of rival Cigna Corporation’s announcement in October that
it had made a successful cash offer of $3.8bn for Medicare
Advantage firm HealthSpring which has about 340,000 Medicare
Advantage members.
