Optum said Tuesday it was buying Alere Health and its subsidiaries, which provide condition management and women’s and children’s health services to hundreds of health plans.
Optum will pay $600 million in cash for the health management business of Alere Inc. (NYSE: ALR). Waltham, Mass.-based Alere, which also makes medical devices and diagnostic tools, had said this summer that it was considering a sale of some units so it could focus more on those traditional strengths, and Reuters in September reported that a deal was close.
The deal requires approval from regulators, but not from Alere shareholders.
Optum officials said that the addition of Alere’s offerings, which include tobacco-cessation programs and home-based obstetrical services, would strengthen its business dealings with employers, states and health-care payers. Larry Renfro, chief executive officer, Optum, called it “a strong fit.”
It’s the latest acquisition for Optum, a unit of Minnetonka-based UnitedHealth Group Inc.(NYSE: UNH). In September, it paid an undisclosed amount for MedSynergies Inc., a Texas-based provider of physician-practice-management software and related consulting services to medical groups.
Date: October 28, 2014