Humana Inc. (HUM) has been hitting headlines over the last one month with Accountable Care agreements in a row. The health and well-being giant has signed a similar deal yet again, this time with MultiCare Health System. The collaborative deal aims health care enhancement for the Medicare Advantage (MA) members of Humana in South King and Pierce Counties, WA.
MultiCare Health System is an integrated health structure developed by five hospitals, namely Allenmore Hospital, Auburn Medical Center, Good Samaritan Hospital, Mary Bridge Children's Hospital and Tacoma General Hospital. Numerous outpatient specialty centers, primary and urgent care clinics are also part of this system. This organization provides services throughout Pierce, South King, Thurston and Kitsap counties.
Being a health care veteran in these regions, MultiCare is expected to help Humana come up with more coordinated health care for its members in the desired counties, particularly in terms of preventive services.
Humana’s Accountable Care initiative is similar to an Accountable Care Organization (ACO). An ACO is a collaboration of health care providers voluntarily forming alliances to provide coordinated high quality care to patients at reduced costs.
To offer superior health care to patients, this Accountable Care arrangement will take resort to a number of population management tools like predictive analytics and chronic care, disease management and wellness programs. Better patient experience will boost customers’ confidence and help Humana gain more members in the counties.
Humana has a 26-year long Accountable Care history and involves over 1.2 million members and 38,000 primary care physicians. It has been establishing ACOs for a long time to enhance the quality of care for its MA members. Usually the traditional health care systems emphasize payment for services rather than healthier patient outcomes. Thus, Humana’s shift to a pay-for-value or value-based system gives it a comparative advantage over other health care systems in terms of delivering better healthcare to more members.
Humana currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). Better-ranked stocks in the healthcare space include Gentiva Health Services Inc. (GTIV), UnitedHealth Group Incorporated (UNH) and Centene Corp. (CNC). While Gentiva sports a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), UnitedHealth and Centene have a Zacks Rank #2 (Buy).
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