Humana Transitions Home Healthcare Products to CenterWell Brand

Humana is transitioning its Kindred at Home home healthcare products to the CenterWell Home Health brand.

The transition entails apparel and other branded material changes from Kindred at Home branding to CenterWell Home Health branding.

Eventually, all Kindred at Home home healthcare services will bear the CenterWell Home Health brand instead of the Kindred at Home brand. That full transition is expected to be complete by the end of the year, but will occur incrementally throughout 2022. By the end of the full transition, CenterWell Home Health will have 350 sites in 38 states.

The payer has initiated the process with seven states at the beginning of March 2022.

Hospice, palliative care, and community and personal care services will not be impacted by this transition. These services will still boast the Kindred at Home brand.

“While the CenterWell Home Health brand is new, our commitment to high-quality, compassionate care is stronger than ever,” said Andy Agwunobi, MD, president of Humana’s home business. 

“Patients will continue receiving the personalized in-home care from the clinicians they’ve come to know and trust. CenterWell Home Health helps reinforce all we’re doing to expand our home health capabilities to better manage the comprehensive care needs of our patients.”

The payer has started its transition with Arizona, Idaho, New Mexico, Nevada, North Carolina, Oregon, and Washington.

In the press release, the payer assured members and providers that there will be few noticeable changes in their patient experience apart from the branding shift. The CenterWell Home Health brand will target improved patient outcomes and access to care through home healthcare.

Leadership from Kindred at Home in the affected states indicated that the brand shift will be a welcome process for providers involved in the change.

“Many of our clinicians and patients connect deeply with the brand’s mission and goals, and feel that this refresh is a more accurate reflection of the quality, personalized care we’ve always delivered,” said Dori Shane, executive director of Kindred at Home in Everett, Washington. 

“The rebrand to CenterWell Home Health also creates a lot of optimism in our future because we are becoming part of a growing, national brand that’s focused on providing better experiences not only to patients and their families, but to frontline clinicians too.”

Humana announced its acquisition agreement with Kindred at Home in April 2021. By acquiring Kindred at Home for $8.1 billion, the payer expanded its caregivers and patient base by around 43,000 and 550,000 individuals respectively. At the time, the payer stated that more than six in ten current Humana individual Medicare Advantage members could access Kindred at Home services.

The payer’s brand transition is not restricted to select Kindred at Home services. Humana began putting many of its senior services and payer-agnostic services under the CenterWell brand in March 2021.

The model allows the payer to expand its value-based care strategy. In June 2021, Humana used its CenterWell Senior Primary Care model to cover Original Medicare members under value-based care. CenterWell joined the CMS Direct Contracting Model in order to do so.

Humana has also expanded its home healthcare services strategy through other acquisitions. Humana shared its intention to acquire One Homecare Solutions from WayPoint Capital Partners in June 2021.