Humana Continues Integrating Home Healthcare Program into Senior Services

Humana has announced that it is adding 14 states to its CenterWell Home Health model by continuing to integrate its home healthcare program, Kindred at Home.

The payer has been transitioning its Kindred at Home division into its CenterWell Home Health brand and this latest announcement signals that the company is moving into the second phase of this process. At the end of phase two, a total of 21 states where Kindred at Home conducted its services will operate under the CenterWell Home Health brand.

The transition involves rebranding facility interiors and signage, implementing new uniforms and branded materials, and other aesthetic changes.

The 14 states in the latest phase of the process are  Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Maine, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

The first phase involved transitioning seven states—Arizona, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington.

“Our patients can rest assured that CenterWell Home Health will maintain care continuity throughout the brand transition,” said Susan Benoit, President of CenterWell Home Health. “In fact, both patients and providers should notice little change in their experience, with the same care provided by their same trusted caregivers.”

When the process reaches phase three—which will be the last phase—the company will integrate 17 more states. Humana has indicated that it plans to start phase three in September 2022. At the end of the transition, CenterWell Home Health will be located across 38 states and will boast more than 350 sites of care.

Humana executives have pointed to the pandemic as a key motivator behind this shift.

“During the pandemic, the amount of care delivered in the home surged, further validating to patients and providers alike that home is an effective site for the care of many conditions. As a result, we expect increased levels of adoption of care in the home to continue,” said Andy Agwunobi, MD, president of Humana’s home business. 

“So the rollout of the CenterWell Home Health brand comes at a great time. It reinforces our efforts to expand our home health capabilities to meet the needs of our patients.”

The payer acquired the remainder of the home healthcare program in April 2021 in an $8.1 billion deal. Until its acquisition, Humana had held a minority stake in the company since 2018. At the time of its acquisition, Kindred at Home had 43,000 caregivers and a reach of over 550,000 patients across most of the US.

Humana also announced its plans to acquire One Homecare Solutions (onehome) in June 2021.

The CenterWell brand is a new brand at Humana that serves seniors. Humana has been constructing it over the course of two years. It extends beyond the Kindred at Home acquisition. The CenterWell Senior Primary Care program expanded to cover Original Medicare beneficiaries in June 2021.

The pandemic drove care into the home to an unprecedented degree and scope. While waivers boosted the utilization of telehealth and virtual care in some areas of healthcare in the early days of the pandemic, home healthcare did not benefit as strongly from those flexibilities. 

But the lack of flexibility may have forced payers to focus more particularly on improving the quality of home healthcare. Many payers focused on cutting out-of-pocket costs for home healthcare benefits in the 2021 open enrollment season as a result of pandemic-related trends.

As the nation emerges from the throes of the pandemic with a better ability to manage the spread of the coronavirus, Medicare Advantage plans have to consider how to build on the progress that they made in home healthcare during the pandemic.