Louisville, meet your new integration overlord. His name is Rick Jelinek, and he’s been selected by Hartford, Conn.-based Aetna Inc. to help it integrate Louisville-based health insurer Humana Inc. into its business.
Humana agreed in July to be acquired by Aetna for $37 billion. Business First reported then that the acquisition will combine Humana’s growing Medicare business with Aetna’s portfolio to create the second-largest managed-care company in the United States. But until recently, we didn’t know who would lead the integration of these two businesses.
Aetna announced it hired Jelinek on Sept. 30. Before that, he most recently had been an operating partner at Boston-based private equity firm Advent International.
But his health care industry roots run deep.
Jelinek was CEO of Minneapolis-based OptumHealth, owned by UnitedHealth Group, from 2012 through 2013.
Before that, he was CEO of UnitedHealth’s emerging business group. He spent 19 years with UnitedHealth in total. His divisional CEO responsibilities at UnitedHealth include overseeing the firm’s Medicare Advantage and Medicaid businesses. Given this experience, it makes sense he was hired to oversee the Humana integration, given Humana’s huge business in Medicare Advantage.
Business First contacted Aetna for comment from Jelinek, but has not yet heard back.
Aetna said in a news release that Jelinek also will lead Aetna’s enterprise strategy division and will report directly to Aetna CEO Mark Bertolini. Jelinek also will join Aetna’s executive committee, the firm’s senior-most leadership team.
The companies expect the Aetna/Humana deal to close in the second half of 2016, and it’s currently working its way though regulatory approvals. If the deal is green-lighted, the resulting company would have projected operating revenue of about $115 billion, with about 56 percent from government-sponsored programs, such as Medicare and Medicaid.
At the time the deal was announced, the plan was that Aetna would make Louisville the headquarters for its Medicare, Medicaid and Tricare businesses and would maintain a significant corporate presence in Louisville. Jelinek is in charge of making that happen.
Jelinek has master’s degrees in business administration and health services administration from the University of Michigan.
Humana is Louisville’s second-largest private-sector employer, with 12,371 local full-time or full-time-equivalent workers as of last year. (The No. 1 company on Louisville Business First’s 2014 list of the area’s largest private-sector employers was United Parcel Service Inc.)
Date: October 7, 2015