Humana and Concentra

I’d forgotten about this deal until someone sent me a note about 2010 earnings for Humana and the fact that this was Humana’s 11th acquisition over the past 5 years.  (Can you name them all?)

Given the push for ACOs and PCMHs and clinics, I think the acquisition of Concentra which owns 300 clinics and almost 250 on-site facilities is an interesting one.  It will give Humana another tactic for managing care and creating stickiness with employers.  I also think that clinics have a lot of opportunity to coordinate with pharmacy and improve adherence, therapeutic conversion, and use of mail order.  (See some of Joe Paduda’s comments here.)

With the Concentra staff, I’d be interested in seeing a deal with American Well or another company where they could be leveraged further in a virtual consultation setting with the option of driving them to a physical facility for follow-up. 

The other potential here is to leverage the clinics to improve HEDIS scores and STAR ratings. 

I think there is more to come here and with similar deals.