Humana Inc. (HUM) recently entered into a long-term agreement with New West Physicians, a primary-care group practice in the Denver area with approximately 250,000 patients. The deal will see New West Physicians provide health care services to individuals and families enrolled in a commercial health plan with Humana. The financial conditions of the transaction were not disclosed.
The contract will allow the enrollees of Humana commercial health plans access to New West Physicians’ 13 office locations, 49 physicians and 12 nurse practitioners. The deal is applicable only to Humana commercial policy members. The benefits cannot be availed by Medicare Advantage members.
We believe that this move by the company will provide its commercial health plan members with increased access to healthcare related facilities which will enable them to monitor their health in a better manner. The new facilities for the members will encourage non-members to undertake Humana memberships. The increased membership will result in higher revenues, thus helping to sustain growth.
Humana, founded in 1964, provides health insurance benefits under Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), Private Fee- For-Service (PFFS) and Preferred Provider Organization (PPO) plans. Humana also provides other benefits with specialty products including dental, vision and other supplementary benefits. The company is one of the largest health care plan providers in the United States, with approximately 10.3 million medical members and approximately 7.3 million specialty-benefit members. The company competes with other big players in the industry such as Aetna Inc. (AET), CIGNA Corp. (CI) and UnitedHealth Group, Inc. (UNH).
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