Humana's deal marks yet another inroad made by health insurers into the PBM space.
Humana Inc. announced Monday that it has reached a definitive agreement to purchase Enclara Healthcare, a Philadelphia-based hospice pharmacy benefit manager (PBM).
Enclara, a privately-held company, serves more than 97,000 patients through 450 hospice providers per day. The Louisville-based insurer will also acquire Enclara Pharmacia, GuidantRx, and Avanti Health Care Services from Consonance Capital Partners as part of the transaction.
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Humana stated that the company aims to "extend its comprehensive care continuum strategy" related to hospice pharmacy needs through the Enclara acquisition.
"Enclara represents a logical extension of Humana Pharmacy's strategy given the company's unique ability to play a role in advanced illness care and supplement our existing care delivery system," Scott Greenwell, PharmD, president of Humana Pharmacy Solutions, said in a statement.
Humana's deal marks yet another inroad made by health insurers into the PBM space, after Cigna Corp. acquired Express Scripts Holding Co. last year and Anthem Inc. launched IngenioRx this spring. Both companies have reported strong earnings as a result of entering the PBM market.
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Andrew Horowitz, CEO of Enclara, said he is excited to join Humana and accelerate innovation to deliver "timely and cost effective pharmacy solutions."
The deal is expected to close during the first half of 2020 pending state and federal regulatory approvals.
The Enclara deal is the latest move in a busy 2019 for Humana, which agreed to a seven-year partnership with Microsoft to deliver digital solutions for personalized care and signed a contract with Epic Systems to integrate the insurer's real-time benefits check (RTBC) tool into the technology company's e-prescribing workflow.
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Jack O'Brien is the Content Team Lead and Finance Editor at HealthLeaders, an HCPro brand.