UnitedHealth Group Inc announced on Wednesday about their plans to expand further its medical offerings with the deal of $4.9 billion to buy DaVita Medical Group, looking to bolster its primary and urgent care services.
DaVita Medical Group operating around 300 clinics and half a dozen outpatient surgical centers in six states such as Florida, California, Colorado, Washington, Nevada and New Mexico. Also, they are part of the Fortune 500 DaVita Inc headquartered in Denver, will give Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group more access to patients across the country. Optum is not acquiring the kidney-care portion of the DaVita business.
Kent Thiry, DaVita chairman and CEO said “I am so proud of the DaVita Medical Group accomplishments, including our excellent clinical outcomes. The combination of DaVita Medical Group and Optum should lead to even higher levels of performance.”
In a joint news release Wednesday morning, “The combination will improve care quality, cost and patient satisfaction through integrated ambulatory care delivery systems enabled by information technology and supportive clinical services. Optum’s data, analytics, technologies and clinical expertise will help DaVita Medical Group physicians deliver even higher quality care more effectively to the patients they serve.”
The deal with Denver-based DaVita is mainly to provide the services of dialysis, will combine UnitedHealth’s Optum unit with DaVita’s physician network business that serves about 1.7 million patients each year through nearly 300 clinics.
And, the deal is expected to close in 2018, but is subject to regulatory approvals. UnitedHealth bought Surgical Care Affiliates for about $2.3 billion in March is notable.
