Elevance Health has signed a deal to purchase Carebridge, a manager of home care and community-based services, the health insurer disclosed Thursday.
The agreement to buy Carebridge was disclosed by Elevance Health president and chief executive officer Gail K. Boudreaux during a Thursday morning call to discuss the company’s third quarter earnings. A purchase price and related financial terms have yet to be disclosed by Carebridge or Elevance as of Thursday evening.
Nashville-based Carebridge, which is privately held, will be housed under Elevance’s fast-growing Carelon healthcare services umbrella. CareBridge, which helps coordinate care of individuals who receive home and community-based services by providing 24/7 access to a clinician, generates more than $4 billion annually, according to a spokeswoman with Oak HC/FT, an investment firm that helped start the company. Carebridge was founded in 2019 by investor Brad Smith with support from Annie Lamont at Oak HC/FT.
“Carelon … recently entered into an agreement to acquire CareBridge, a value-based manager of home- and community-based services for chronic and complex members that will serve as the foundation for Carelon’s home health business, and we are excited to continue to serve all its customers and members,” Boudreaux told analysts and investors during the earnings call. “Carelon Services is expanding its capabilities to manage a growing proportion of healthcare spending, supporting the long-term growth of the business and by extension, the value it creates for health plan customers.”
Though Elevance’s third quarter earnings dropped more than 20% to $1 billion largely due to higher costs in its health insurance business and its Medicaid plans in particular, Elevance’s health services are growing under the Carelon umbrella the company created two years ago and has bolstered through acquisitions.
Operating revenue for Carelon rose 15%, or $1.8 billion, to $13.8 billion in the third quarter, which executives said was driven by the “launch and growth of risk-based capabilities in Carelon Services and growth in CarelonRx product revenue,” the company said.
“Growth in Carelon Services remains strong, and we are on track to exceed the upper end of our initial outlook for low twenties percentage revenue growth,” Boudreaux told analysts. “This includes external growth above our initial targets for 2024 – a proof point in first demonstrating our value proposition internally, before driving growth externally.”
