OptumHealth, the healthcare services and delivery business of UnitedHealth Group's Optum, has acquired naviHealth, a post-acute care management platform for health plans and providers, for an undisclosed sum. The deal was first reported by the Nashville Business Journal, and confirmed to MobiHealthNews by an Optum representative.

While the terms of the transaction were not disclosed, Optum said that naviHealth will continue to work with its clients and members as a stand-alone entity that is aligned with OptumHealth. CEO Clay Richards – who cofounded the company in 2012 alongside former Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Tom Scully – will continue to head naviHealth's leadership team.

“For the past eight years, naviHealth has worked tirelessly combining data and clinical insights to improve the health care experience and help seniors live more fulfilling lives," Richards said in a statement. "Now, as part of the Optum organization, we can further deliver on this mission. Our leadership team remains committed to providing value to our customers, and excited about how we can serve patients even better.”

WHAT'S THE IMPACT?

naviHealth leverages a combination of analytics, clinical decision-support tools and clinical staff to monitor and guide recovery among post-acute patients. The company said that it is currently managing these services for 4.5 million Medicare Advantage members, and works with more than 140 hospitals in CMS' Bundled Payments for Care Improvement Advanced program.

From the outside, Optum has signaled that it wants to leave naviHealth's business mostly intact, but will be providing resources to help expand the platform to more patients.

“Bringing together naviHealth’s post-acute clinical model and data-driven insights with Optum’s community-based health care and clinical capabilities will help meet the growing demand for highly personalized, value-based care coordination for patients with complex health conditions across the entire care spectrum. Working together, Optum and naviHealth are strongly positioned to help patients get the highest possible quality of care so they can get and stay healthy.”

THE LARGER TREND

naviHealth is the latest in what is now looking to be a string of digital health acquisition plans for Optum.

Late last year it acquired remote-monitoring company Vivify Health in a deal that, similar to this week's news, has the Plano, Texas-based platform acting as a largely independent business unit.

More recently, Optum was also reported to be in late-stage talks with virtual behavioral-care company AbleTo regarding a roughly $470 million acquisition. Optum is already a stakeholder in the company as of January 2019.

Optum's parent company UnitedHealth Group also participated in some digital health M&A last summer when it acquired online patient community portal PatientsLikeMe. The startup became part of the company's research arm that investigates healthcare improvements and innovation.